Full text of "A dictionary of saintly women"

A DICTIONARY 



OF 



SAINTLY WOMEN 



GEORGE BELL AND SONS 

LONDON : PORTUGAL ST., LINCOLN S INN 

CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & co. 

NEW YORK : THE MACM1LLAN CO. 
BOMBAY : A. II. WHEELER & CO. 



A DICTIONARY 



OF 



SAINTLY WOMEN 



BY 

AGNES B. C. DUNBAR 



IN TWO VOLUMES 



VOLUME I 




LONDON 
GEORGE BELL & SONS 

YORK HOUSE, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN S INN, W.C. 

1904 










t)& 

v- 1 



ZTo 

CAROLINE 

VISCOUNTESS SHEKBllOOKK 
THIS BOOK IS 

BY PERMISSION 

DEDICATED 



PREFACE 

FOR nearly half of a long life it has been my vocation to collect 
and arrange legends and records of women worshipped as saints or 
so considered. Although the work has been to me a sanctuary 
from the anxieties and vexations of daily life, I have, during the 
whole time, been painfully conscious of my unworthiness to write 
on the subject of saints, and my inability to approach the degree 
of excellence to which such a book might attain in better hands. 
From the mass of information often contradictory concerning this 
vast multitude, I have selected the most remarkable incidents. Some 
of these are chosen on account of the historical importance of the 
heroine, her noble character or wonderful gifts, or because of some 
interesting side-light which they shed on customs or beliefs of her 
time and country. Some few stories have been included as examples 
of the extreme absurdity to which these memorials have reached. 
Where there are several saints of one name they are arranged 
chronologically. 

My information has been gathered largely from the Ada 
Sanctorum of the Bollandists. from the histories of the various 
countries and religious orders to which these saintly women belonged, 
from collections of Lives and legends, and from many other sources. 
Authorities are given for each article. A list of the books con 
sulted will be found at the end of the second volume. I have 
generally abstained from criticising or expressing a personal opinion. 
Where I have said that a story is untrue or an author untrustworthy, 
the statement is made on the authority of some accredited Catholic 
writer. 

There are moments when it seems as though the presenting of a 
subject so remote from modern tendencies almost asks for an apology. 
If such be needed, let it be found in the reflection that in the same 
way as the monasteries preserved the slumbering germs of culture 
and civilization through hundreds of years of barbarism, so, throughout 
the darkness of the Middle Ages and the spirit-deadening struggle 



viii PREFACE 

for material prosperity, it was by those who are remembered as saints 
that the light of the Christian ideal was kept alive. 

It appears that there is at present in English no complete 
dictionary of the Christian saints. When such a work comes to be 
written I trust that my book may be of use to the compiler. 
Meanwhile, I hope that readers will find in these pages any sainted 
woman for whom they are likely to look and some of whom they 
probably never heard. 

I owe a great debt of gratitude to the kind friends who have 
helped me in various ways. Many of them have passed over the 
dark river ; to those who remain I offer heartfelt thanks. I commend 
my subject to the toilers and the idlers of the busy world, and my 
work to their indulgence. 

A. B. C. D. 

LONDON, 

September, 1904. 



ABBREVIATIONS 



AA.SS. 
A.R.M. 
B. 
c. 
M. 

Mart. . 
O.S.A. . 
O.S.B. . 
O.S.D. 
O.S.F. . 
Proter 
RM. . 
Yen. . 
V. 



. Acta Sanctorum. 
. Appendix to Roman Martyrology. 
Blessed. 



. Martyr, martyred. 

. Martyrology. 

. Order of St. Augustine. 

. )rder of St. Benedict. 

. Order of St Dominic. 

. Order of St. Francis. 

. Pnutermissi. 

. Roman Martyrology. 

Venerable. 

Virgin. 

Died. 



ERRATA 

Abia : for " THECLA (1)," raid "THECLA (16)." 
Anna (19) : for " Legnitz," read " Leignitz." 
Basilica (2) : for " PLACIDIA (1)," read " PLACIDA." 
Benedicta (17) : for " Varasio," read " Varese." 
Britta (1) : for " July 3," read " July 13." 
Catherine (10) : for " Varasio," read Varese." 
Dionysia (o) : for " VICTORIA (19)," raZ " VICTORIA (24). 
Emily (1) : for " Nyassa," rea^ "Nyssa." 



A DICTIONARY OF SAINTLY WOMEN 



St. Aagot, AGATHA. 

St. Ab, EISBA. 

St. Abba or ALLA, May 7, M. in 
Africa, with an immense number of 
others, of whom about t&gt;0 are named. 
AA.SS. Boll, from the Mart, of St. 

J&lt; r&lt;m . 

B. Abbatissa, first abbess of the 
Order of the Holy Ghost at Salamanca, 
about 1 1 th century. Guenebault, Die. 
Iconographique. 

St. Abda, March ;n, M. in Africa. 
M&lt;t,-t. lllnnnn.nse. AA.SS. 

St. Abdela (ADELA, ADLA), 1.5th 
century. Princess of Bohemia. Abbess 
of Gerenrhoda. Half-sister of ST. AGNES 
of Bohemia. Daughter of Premislaus 
Ottocar I., king of Bohemia (11 98-1 230), 
by his wife Abdela or Adela, daughter of 
( )tto, margrave of Meissen. The queen 
was divorced, cither on the ground of 
consanguinity or on account of her 
hiding with her brother in a quarrel 
with the king. She then became a 
Cistercian nun at Wassenburg, in 
Meissen, leaving, besides Abdela, two 
daughters and a son. Fabricius, 
(ti-iijiin* Sn.i-onum, numbers St. Abddu 
nrnon^ tin- saint &gt; of Saxony. Chanowski, 
Bo!" . Dlugoech, JJtftl. Pofomeo, 

ii. i i4 . Palacky, Gcscltichte von ]!"!/- 

//, ii., Genealogical Table. 

St. Abia, otherwise MAKIAMNA (3). 
See THEOLA (1). 

St. Abiata, V. M. See BAIUTA. 

St. Abundantia ( I ), Jan. 29, 
called in French AKONDAM r. or MONDK. 
A widow who lived at Spoleto, and 
buried St. Gregory and other martyrs 



there, during the persecution by Dio 
cletian, c. 300. Jacobilli, Santi DclV 



St. Abundantia (2). V. Jan. 10 
and July 15. "f" 80 4-. Represented as a 
child, before the imago of the Virgin 
Mary, receiving a golden apple from the 
Infant Jesus. Born at Spoleto, of 
parents who had long been childless. 
I ler birth was announced by the spon 
taneous ringing of the bells of the town. 
At her baptism lamps were lighted 
without human hands. One day, when 
about eight years of age, she was seized 
with a longing for a golden apple she 
saw in the hand of an image of the 
Infant Christ in His mother s arms. 
Ho gave it to her. She ran to fetch 
Him a bouquet in return, and although 
it was mid-winter, she found plenty of 
beautiful flowers, which she gathered 
and presented to the Holy Child. 
Majolo, or Nicholas, abbot of St. Mark s, 
at Spoleto, undertook her education. 
He took her to Palestine, where she 
remained some years. She spent five 
years as a recluse in the cave of St. 
Onuphrius, and then, as her father kept 
constantly asking to have her homo 
again, she returned to Spoleto. At her 
father s death she gave all her inherit 
ance to the poor. The same mysterious 
ringing of bells which hailed her birth 
was also heard at her death, in S04 ; and 
where her funeral passed, leaves and 
flowers burst forth in January, and 
angels were heard to sing V&lt;ni tponsa 
Clnisti. She performed miracles of 
healing in life and after her death. 



ST. ABYCE 



Ferrarius, Catalogue, Jan. 19. Bncelinus, 
Men. Ben., July 15. Guerin, Dec. 25. 
Cahier, Caraeteristiqucs, " Images." 
Petin, D*V. Hag. 

St. Abyce or ABYCIA, Aug. 24, 
prioress in England, according to Gucrin 
and Petin. Perhaps a mistake for ST. 
ALICE HIGH, who is honoured on this 
day. 

St. Acacia, March 29 (ACATIA, 

ACHATIA, ACHATIO, AciIARTIO), M. at 

Antioch, with about 250 others. Boll. 
AA.SS. from old MS. Martyrologies. 

SS. Acapis, Cionia, and Herene, 
with IXGEXIAXA, Saturninus, and 
Secundus, April 1. Mentioned in Mart, 
of Heiclienau. The first three appear to 
be AGAPE, CHIOXIA, and IRENE. 

St. Achachildis or ATZIX. llth 
century. Supposed to be a sister of 
ST. CUNEGUND, the empress. Achachildis 
is represented: (1) presenting five in 
fants to her husband ; (2) performing 
various charitable miracles. She had 
five children at a birth, after which she 
and her husband took a vow of celibacy. 
She passed her life as a benefactor of the 
poor. Her tomb was found, in 1-147, at 
Wendelstein, near Schwabach. On the 
stone was an inscription, calling her a 
holy woman and founder of the parish 
church of the place. After the discovery 
of the grave, many miracles of healing 
occurred, especially on behalf of children, 
and gifts of wax and many other offer 
ings were made in consequence. The 
place afterwards became protestant, and 
the worship ceased. Stadlcr und Heim, 
Heiligen Lex ikon. 

St. Achartio, ACACIA. 

St. Achatia, ACACIA. 

St. Achatio, ACACIA. 

St. Achia, ECHEA. 

St. Acrabonia and Askama, June 
29, otherwise DEURIS and CARIA, wives 
of Agrippa, who were converted by St. 
Peter from a sinful life to virtue and 
Christianity. Honoured in the Abys 
sinian Church. Papebroch, in AA.SS. 

St. Acrosia, June 29, a disciple of 
St. Peter the apostle. Honoured in the 
Abyssinian Church. Boll. AA.SS. 
Petin, Die. Hag. 

St. Acteie, June 26, at Rome. 
of Rcichenau. 



St. Actinea and Grseciniana, W. 
MM., Juno 10. Time of Diocletian and 
Maximian. Their bodies were dis 
covered in the monastery of SS. Justus 
and Clement at Volterra in 1140, by 
persons who were excavating in search 
of the body of St. Clement, a Camaldolese 
monk. Boll. AA.SS. 

St. Acuta (i;, Jan. 3, M. in Africa. 
AA.SS. 

St. Acuta (2), April 15, M. in 
Mesopotamia. AA.SS. 

St. Acuta (3), May G, M. at Milan, 
supposed in the time of Maximian. 
Mentioned this day, among many others, 
in the MS. Martyrology of Eptornac and 
others. St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan 
(4th century), in a sermon on the 
festival of SS. Nazarius and Celsus, 
says, " Other cities boast if they have 
the relics of one Martyr, but Milan 
possesses a population of Martyrs." 
Boll. AA.SS. 

St. Acutina or AGUTINA, April 12, 
one of 79 martyrs, commemorated to 
gether in the Martyrolony of St. Jerome. 
Henschenius, Boll. AA.SS. 

Ada. The following are among the 
variants of the names commonly written 
Ada, Alice, Adelaide : ADALHEIDIS, 
ADALINDA, ADDULA, ADELA, ADELAIDE, 
ADELA IS, ADELEIDIS, ADELHEIT, ADELIZA, 
ADELOJA, ADENETA, ADILIA, ADXA, AD- 
NETTA, ADOXETTE, ADRECHILD, ADRE- 
HILDIS, ADULLA, AELICIA, AELIZ, AETHEL- 
IIEITHA, ALAIDES, ALAIS, ALAYSIA, 
ALETIIA, ALEYDIS, ALITH, ALIX, ALIZ, 
ALIZETTE, ALIZOX, ATEIS, ATIIALA, 
ATHILA, ATHELAIS, AZELIA, ELIZAHKTII, 
ETHEL, EZELIND, HADALA, HADELOGA, 
ODILIA, OTHILIA, ZELIE, etc. 

St. Ada, Dec. 4 (ADENETA, ADXA, 
ADNETTA, ADONETTE, ADRECHILD, ADRE- 
HILDIS), (3th or 7th century. Abbess. 
Niece or granddaughter of St. Engelbert, 
bishop of Lo Mans (Nov. 7). She was a 
nun at Soissons, and Eugelbert promoted 
her to be abbess there, and afterwards 
transferred her as abbess to the monastery 
of Pre (St. Julian do Prato) at Le Mans. 
Bucelinus, Men. Ben. Petin, Die. Hay. 
Die. ties AM&gt;ayes. Gynecseum. 

St. Adalasenda, Dec. 2:,, June 30 
( ADAI.SKXDIS, ADALSIXD ), V. Daughter of 
ST. RICTRUDE, and nun under her at 



ST, ADKLA 



ICarohiennee. Died very young, but 
had already attuned to great perfection 
in holinos. One of a family of saints. 
Imtler, Lires. Petin, Die. Hay., says, 
Xun, under her sister, ST. EUSKBIA, at 
llamay. 

St. Adalinda, the KMPIIESS ADELAIDE. 

St. Adalqja, HAII-:LO&lt;;A. abbess of 
Kitzingen. 

St. Adalsendis or ADAI.SIM&gt;. ADALA- 

SKVDA. 

St. Adausia or AI.AVISA, Aug. i&gt;i, 
31. at Borne. Boll. AA.SS. 

St. Addula, ADELA OF PFALZEL. 

B. Adela &lt; 1 &gt;, Nov. 23. e. :;&lt;) or 
864. Of the blood of the dukes of 
Anstrasia. Mother of St. Tron, or 
Trndo, or Trnyen, priest. Buried on 
her own estate at Zeleem, near Dist, in 
Brabant. Some of Adela s bones are 
preserved in the Benedictine monastery 
founded by her son, at the place since 
called St. Trond. He died in 693. Le 
Mire, Fasti Bdy. Butler, Lives of ilf 
/ ///. n, " St. Tron," Nov. 23. Gynecseum. 

St. Adela (2j, Dec. 24 (ADDUI.A, 
A mi: i. A, and perhaps ADOLEXA ), founder 
and abbess of Pfalzel ( Palatiolum ), "f c. 
7:51. ST. IRMINA of Horres and ST. 
ADKI.A of Pfalzel were daughters of 
Dagobert II., king of Austrasiu, some 
times called Saint, and honoured Dec. 
23. Adela married Alberic, and had 
several children. About 7"", being a 
widow, she took the veil in a monastery 
built for her by Dagobert and St. Mod- 
wald, or llodcald, archbishop of Treves, 
at Pfal/el on the Moselle. The arch 
bishop s sister, ST. SEVER A, was the first 
abbess, and was succeeded by Adela. 
She is probably that ADOLKXA to whom 
ST. ELFLEDA wrote to bespeak her kind 
ness and hospitality for another English 
abbess on her way to Koine, supposed to 
! J). Wrnir.n: ,\ (2), St. Boniface 
visited her convent OH his way from 
Frisia to Thuringia, about 722. She 
had at the time a grandson, named 
ry, staying with her, a boy of 
1 mirtccn or iit teen, who read aloud from 
the Holy Scriptures while the nuns and 
their guest were at dinner. St. Boniface 
remarked that he read very well, and 
bade him explain the passage. This the 
boy could not do, and Boniface took up 



the subject and preached to the whole 
community with so much eloquence ami 
impressi veness that Gregory told his 
grandmother he must go with the holy 
man and become his pupil. Adela ob 
jected to let her darling go and travel in 
heathen lands and unexplored wilds ; but 
he feared no danger, and far from listen 
ing to any dissuasion, he said if his 
grandmother would not give him a horse, 
as became the grandson of a king, ho 
would follow the missionaries on foot. 
Adela saw in the earnestness of the child 
a divine call, and furnished him with 
what wr.s necessary for the expedition. 
From that day Gregory never left St. 
Boniface, until he witnessed his martyr 
dom at Docking, or Dockum, in Fries- 
land. 

Achery and Mabillon give a copy of 
Adela s will, in which she leaves every 
thing to her convent, except an estate 
which she bequeaths to her son Alberic. 
They call her " pious " rather than " saint," 
as her worship seems uncertain. She is 
commemorated in the French Mar tyro- 
logy, Dec. 24, and honoured with her 
sister Irmina in several martyrologies. 

Wion, Liynnin Yitic, p. 520, calls her 
"Saint Athela." TVrx &lt;1,- 8 S&lt;u ntt# &lt;/&lt; 
France. Lelong, Bill. Hist de France. 
Achery and Mabillon, AA.SS. O.S.B., II. 
498, Saic. iii. pars. i. p. 531, etc. Petin, 
Die. Hag. Brower, Sidcra. Ceillier, 
Auteurs sacrcs. Adela, Irmina. and Clo 
tilda form one of the TRIADS, who were 
probably heathen tribal goddesses. The 
pilgrimages to their shrines and the rites 
there observed retain traces of paganism. 
Eckenstein. 

St. Adela (3), Jan. 8 (AI.KI.AIS, 
ADELAIDE). -flOTl. Princess of France. 
( oiintess of Flanders. Abbess of Mee- 
sene. The countess-queen. Daugi 
of Robert the Pious, king of France, {)!&gt;;_ 
Ki31. Sister of Henry I. 1031-1000. 
Wife of Baldwin V. (of Lille), count of 
Flanders, 1084-1067. Mother of Bald 
win VI. Mother-in-law of William the 
Conqueror. This appears to be the same 
prim-ess who was married in her infancy 
tn Hie-hard, duke of Normandy. Whether 
Baldwin of Lille was her first or second 
husband, she was married to him in lie/ 
childhood, and was taken by his father, 



ST. ADELA 



Baldwin IV., to Flanders, to be brought 
up in his own family. The town of 
Corbio was her dowry. Baldwin rebelled 
against his father, stirred up, says Sis- 
mondi, by the pride of his wife, who, 
being a king s daughter, thought she 
ought to have the first place in the house 
of a count. Finding the fortune of war 
against him, and no help coming from 
the king of France, he craved mercy and 
pardon. A reconciliation was made, on 
Baldwin swearing, in presence of the 
Flemish bishops and barons and of the 
bodies of SS. PHARAILDIS, WALBURGA, and 
other famous patron saints of Flanders, 
to submit to the count s authority and 
keep the peace. In the same year, 1031, 
Robert, king of France, Adela s father, 
died, and was succeeded by his son 
Henry I. In 1036 died count Baldwin 
IV., Belle Barle, after a long and 
prosperous reign. He left his country 
at peace, both with the Emperor and the 
king of France a circumstance which 
had seldom, if ever, occurred before. 
Adela s husband succeeded as Baldwin V. 
He was constantly at war, either refusing 
to do homage to the Emperor or to the 
king of France for his possessions, or 
punishing others for refusing to acknow 
ledge his suzerainty. Nevertheless, he 
was considered the best prince of his 
time, and was loved by his subjects and 
respected by his neighbours. On the 
death of his brother-in-law Henry I. of 
France (1060), he was chosen regent of 
France and guardian of the young king 
Philip I., the Fair, Adela s nephew, then 
only eight years old. His letter of foun 
dation to the church of St. Peter at 
Lille says 

"I Baldwin, marquis of the Flemings, 
Count, regent of France, guardian of 
King Philip . . . considering that by 
building a house of God on earth, I pre 
pare for myself a dwelling in heaven, 
. . . and acquiescing in the good advice 
of my wife Aclela, and my son Baldwin 
. . . have founded a college of canons to 
implore day and night the clemency of 
God for . . . my soul, the souls of my 
predecessors, my wife and children, and 
all faithful souls. . . . 

"Done at Lille, in the Basilica of 
St. Peter, in the presence of Philip king 



of France, in the seventh year of his 
reign." 

King Philip also signed the deed. 
Baldwin and Adela built the Bene 
dictine monastery of Meescne. Several 
grants by them, to Mecseno and other 
churches, arc to be found in Le Mire s 
Notitia Ecclesiarum Belyii. They rebuilt 
the monastery of Einham, or Iham, on 
the Scald, and gave it to the Benedic 
tines in 1063. Baldwin made the Fosse 
ncuf, a great canal between Flanders 
and Artois. In 1069 he gave his whole 
attention to his approaching death and 
the completion of his pious works. His 
last public act was the dedication of his 
new church of St. Bavo, on the site of 
the former one, at Ghent. (See ADEL- 
TRDDK.) Ho died Sept. 1, ln&lt;59, and 
was buried in the church of St. Peter 
at Lille, where his tomb and epitaph 
w r ere to be seen in the 1 8th century. After 
his death, Adelaide chose the monastery 
of Meesene as her residence, that she 
might spend the remainder of her life in 
silent prayer. She wished to receive the 
religious veil from the hands of the Pope, 
and for that purpose went to Rome. She 
travelled in a car, covered with a cur 
tain, to protect her from wind and rain, 
that her prayers might not be inter 
rupted on the journey. She obtained 
from the Pope some of the relics of St. 
Sidronius, as well as the veil and the 
papal blessing. She then returned to 
Meesene, and remained there until her 
death in 1071. 

Her children were Baldwin VI. of Mons 
(the Good), Robert the Frisian, Henry, 
Matilda (married William the Conqueror, 
duke of Normandy, and king of Eng 
land), Judith (married, 1st, Tosti, brother 
of Harold, king of England; 2nd, Guclph, 
duke of Bavaria, founder of the younger 
line of the house of Guclph, from whom 
the present royal family of England are 
descended). Baldwin VI. was a good 
prince ; in his time, doors were left open, 
and people could go about without sticks 
or daggers. His secretary, Thomellus, 
a monk, has left an account of the youth 
of his master, valuable as illustrating 
the manners of the time. 

A story of the wooing of Matilda by 
William of Normandy has often been 



ST. ADELAIDE 



rejected by modern writers as incredible; 
but Lo Glay thinks it not at all incon 
sistent with what is known of the times 
and the people, and says it is related in 
some very old chronicles. The account 
is as follows : 

William, duko of Normandy, sent a 
message to Ualdwin, count of Flanders, 
to ask the hand of his daughter Matilda. 
Baldwin was pleased with the offer, but 
when ho told Matilda of it, she answered 
that she would never marry a bastard. 
Iluldwin made the most polite excuses 
he could for his refusal. A considerable 
time passed before William heard what 
the young lady had said. He was ex 
tremely sensitive on the subject of his 
birth, and bitterly resented any slight 
or insult grounded on that misfortune. 
When Matilda s answer was told to 
him, ho went to Lille; rushed, unan 
nounced, into Adela s apartment, where 
her daughters wero sitting with her; 
seized Matilda by her long plaits, dragged 
her through the room, threw her down, 
and kicked her; then, disappearing as 
suddenly as he had entered, mounted 
his horse and rode away to his own 
dominions. Very soon alter this strange 
incident, the young people were recon 
ciled and betrothed. As Pope Leo IX. 
raised objections to the marriage, on tho 
ground of consanguinity, there was some 
delay ; they were married, nevertheless, 
at Eu, in 1050, and afterwards obtained 
a dispensation, on condition that each 
should build a church. William built 
the abbey of St. Etieune, at Caen, and 
Matilda that of tho Holy Trinity, in tho 
same town. Matilda had a great deal of 
influence over her husband, which she 
always used for good. 

Mineus (Le Mire j, Aunalcs Btlyici and 
Notitid Ecderiarum 7&gt; /&lt;/// . lfioyr&lt;ifi&lt;t 
K -flesiastlca (Madrid, 1 ^ IS). Putin, Die. 
Jl i j. L Art ilr I - ////&lt;/ li:s dates. Le 
(ilay, 7//.sV. il,-n Cinuli-x de Flandrr. Sis- 
moudi, lli-t. ill 1 * I \iniri is. Freeman, 
-V ////// ( nijuext, iii. GJ7. Palgravc, 
History &lt;f A "/ /// ///&lt;/// ami / //_ // (//&lt;/, iii. 
l;&gt;7, L (1 &gt;i. Biographic UniverteUe, Lap- 

pcnbcrg, Sit.rim KIIKJ- &lt;&gt;/ /, // &lt;//r/m/, ii. 

St. Adela (4;, of Bohemia, A.BDELA, 

^ St. Adelaide ( ij, Juno i&gt;, 27, of 

Bergamo, Wife of St. Lupo, prince of 



that city, a virtuous ruler though a 
heathen. They had a daughter, ST. 
(IKATA, who was the first of the three to 
become a Christian. Ho built a church, 
and was baptized there, with many of 
his subjects ; ho lived fifteen years more, 
and was buried in his church. Adelaide 
and Grata were widows for many years, 
and built several churches. Legend 
places tho lives of these three saints in 
tho time of Diocletian, but Henschenius, 
AA.SS., thinks it more likely that they 
lived in the 7th, 8th, or !&gt;th century. 
The mother and daughter are commemo 
rated together Juno 9 ; and separately, 
Adelaide, June 27 ; and Grata, Aug. 25. 

St. Adelaide (2), Feb. 2. Abbess of 
Kit/ingen, HADELOQA. 

St. Adelaide (:i) J )c c. 10, 12, and 
17. 992. Empress! Queen of Italy. 
Queen of Germany. Called " the Happy" 
and " the Mother of the Kings." Tho 
richest woman in Europe. For variants of 
her name, sec ADA. Adelaide, daughter 
of liudolph or Italph II., king of Bur 
gundy, and his wife P&gt;ertha of Suabia, 
was born about 931. At sixteen she 
was married at Milan, to Lothaire, who 
soon afterwards succeeded her father as 
king of Italy. Pavia was given to Ade 
laide as a dowry. In 950 Lothairo 
died. His death was attributed to 
poisoned wine, given to him during a 
feast at Turin, by Berengarius, who 
immediately proclaimed himself king, as 
Berengarius II. He sought to strengthen 
his position by marrying his son Atlel- 
bert to Lothaire s widow. But Adelaide 
indignantly answered that if she ever 
married again it should bo a man who 
could avenge her husband s death. She 
was besieged in Pavia, and in spite of 
tho devotion of her people, and the 
heroism and generosity with which, when 
provisions failed, she shared everything 
with them, a traitor was found to open 
tho gates, and before tho queen knew 
that tho town was taken, tho enemy 
stood before her. At first Berengarius 
and Villa, his wife, treated her well; 
but as she persisted in her refusal to 
marry Adalbert, she was imprisoned at 
Como, where she was subjected to all 
kinds of insults from Villa, who is 
described by Liutprand as tho very worst 







ST. ADELAIDE 



of all the many very bad women in 
Italy. In vain, when words of flattery 
and of abuse alike failed, did Villa cuff 
and kick Adelaide, and drag her by her 
hair, to induce her to become her 
daughter-in-law. From Como she was 
transferred to a castle on the lake of 
Garcia, and only allowed the attendance 
of her chaplain, Martin, and one maid 
servant. Both were, however, devoted 
to her ; and Adelhard, bishop of Reggio, 
having promised to receive her into a 
place of safety, if she could manage to 
escape, Martin succeeded in making a 
hole in the wall of Adelaide s room, 
through which she and her maid crept 
in men s clothes. After enduring many 
fatigues, and narrowly escaping recap 
ture, they succeeded in reaching the 
town of Cauossa, a strong fortress on a 
steep rock at the foot of the hills close 
to Garda, and held by Azo, Adelaide s 
uncle, as a fief of Eeggio. From there 
she wrote to Otho, emperor of Germany 
(936-973), imploring help ; and, at the 
same time, the Pope, Agapetus II., ap 
plied to him to settle the disturbances 
in Italy. 

The beauty and accomplishments of 
the young queen, combined with her 
misfortunes and wrongs, aroused the 
sympathy and indignation of civilized 
Europe. The princes whose lands bor 
dered on the kingdom of Italy took a 
double interest in her cause, as there 
was always the hope of acquiring for 
themselves some little slice of that 
pleasant land. Among these were Henry, 
duke of Bavaria, the brother of Otho ; 
and Liudolph, the Emperor s son by his 
first wife, B. EDITH of England. Otho 
was touched by the sad fate of Adelaide, 
and resolved to help her, and, at the 
same time, to turn the present crisis to 
his own advantage. He immediately 
sent promises of help and proposals of 
marriage. The knight who carried the 
despatches, unable to make his way into 
Canossa, watched as it was by the 
enemy s soldiers, fastened the Emperor s 
letter to an arrow and shot it over the 
wall. As soon as possible, Otho has 
tened to Pavia, whose gates opened at 
his approach, and there ho was pro 
claimed king of the Franks and Lom 



bards. At the same time, he sent a 
strong force to Canossa to escort Ade 
laide to Pavia. She was received at 
the gate of the city by the Emporor and 
his two brothers, Henry, duke of Bavaria, 
and St. Bruno, archbishop of Cologne. 
In 951 Adelaide, who little more than 
a year ago had left Pavia a prisoner, 
re-entered it, amid the acclamations of 
the people, as the bride of the Emperor. 
Otho, although nearly twenty years 
older than Adelaide, was still in the 
prime of life, a man of gigantic strength 
and great beauty, with long fair hair 
and blue eyes of extraordinary brilliancy, 
and to these personal advantages he 
added barbaric splendour of dress. 
Moreover, he was by far the ablest king 
who had reigned in Germany since 
Charlemagne. Throughout Germany 
the new empress was hailed as an angel 
of peace, and the events of after-years 
justified the good impression she had 
made on the people. 

Adelaide and Otho sent missionaries 
to convert the Sclavonians, and induced 
the Pope to appoint bishops in the 
countries now called Prussia and Poland. 
St. Adalbert, archbishop of Magdeburg, 
was sent, in 961, to the Rugi, or Rani, 
a people living in Pomerania, between 
the rivers Oder and Wipper ; but when 
the bishop and his companions arrived, 
the people massacred some and sent the 
others out of the country. The liugi 
continued heathen for two centuries 
longer. 

In course of time Berengarius broke 
an agreement which had been made with 
Otho, but was soon defeated, and sent 
as a prisoner to J &gt;ambcrg ; his wife, 
Villa, who had taken refuge in the 
citadel of St. Julius, in the midst of the 
lake of Orta, was obliged to surrender, 
and, loaded with chains, was brought 
before Adelaide. When the empress 
mildly remonstrated with her on her 
crimes, the prisoner replied, " The only 
crime with which I reproach myself is 
that I did not kill you when I had you 
in my power." Adelaide instantly had 
her fetters struck off, and sent her in 
safety to her husband. Their son Adal 
bert had to cede his possessions to the 
bishop of Mocleua, but Adelaide adopted 



ST. ADELAIDE 



liis t\vo daughters, and brought them up 
at her n-urt. 

On Feb. 2, W2, the long-deferred 
coronation of Otho and Adelaide took 
place at Uome, whither they were in- 
1 by .lolm XII. ; but, before leaving 
Germany, Otlio had liis ymmg son, Otho, 
crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle. The next 
year, at the instance of a council of 
bishops, the Emperor deposed Popo 
John, on account of his crimes, and 
appointed instead liis own secretary, a 
layman, as Leo VIII. In 973 Otho 
&lt;lied ivt Menileben, universally and 
heartily regretted, having been king of 
Germany thirty-six years, and Emperor 
nearly eleven. He was buried at Magde 
burg by the side of his first wife, Edith 
of England, and Adelaide spent much 
of her time there in religious retirement. 
He was succeeded by his son, Otho II., 
who, under the influence of his wife, 
Theophauie, banished his mother from 
court. Adelaide went to her native 
land. The empire, however, did not 
prosper in her absence ; the people were 
anxious for her return ; and a recon 
ciliation having been effected by St. 
Majolus, Adelaide kept the Easter 
festival of t Sl at Home, with her son 
and his wife. 

Otho died at Home in 9 S3, leaving 
Theophanie regent for his sou, Otho III., 
then nine years old. Adelaide and 
Theophunie, although not always in 
perfect harmony, agreed in bestowing an 
excellent education on the young king, 
who, for his beauty and acquirements, 
was called "the Wonder of the World." 
One of his tutors was a Frenchman, 
Gerbert dAurillac, a man so learned 
that he was accused of using magic arts. 
Ho was made archbishop of Jiheims, and 
ultimately 1 opn Sylvester II. Tho 
empresses quarrelled, and Theophanio 
boasted that, if she lived a year, Adelaide, 
should not have a foot of ground left in 
her possession. It seemed probable at 
the moment that her life had not one, 
but many years to run, but in one 
mouth it was cut oft , and Adelai.lt: ruled 
uluiie. Jl.-r love for ht : grandson kept 
her at court when she had grown weary 
of its splendour ; and for his sake she 
continued to employ herself in worldly 



affairs and politics when their yoke had 
grown irksome. In 980 the two greatest 
crowned heads in Europe were her 
grandsons, namely, Otho III., tho Em 
peror, and Louis V., king of France; 
and this circumstance led Sylvester II. 
(Gerbert) to style her " tho Mother of 
tho Kings." About this year, if at all, 
occurred the extraordinary incident of 
the crime and punishment of the em 
press Mary. It rests on no contemporary 
authority, but is spoken of as a i act by 
accredited historians who lived within 
half a century of the events. 

Historians do not record the marriage 
of Otho III., but the legend, which is 
very ancient, has it that he was married 
to Mary of Aragou. Mary had fallen 
in love as Isolde with Tristram with 
Count Emmeran, when he was tho Em 
peror s ambassador to bring her from 
her father s court. As Emmeran was 
devoted to his own wife, and loyal to his 
master, he ignored the empress s pre 
ference, until her love changed to vindic 
tive hatred, and she determined that he 
should pay for his coldness with his life. 
She accused him to her husband. Otho, 
in his distress, sought counsel of that 
wisest of women, his grandmother. She 
advised him to make no scandal. " Let 
it not be known," said she, " that any 
one mistook the empress for a woman 
who could be disloyal." Mary stood in 
awe of tho old empress, who had some 
times gently reproached her for a certain 
lack of circumspection ; she kept quiet 
for a time, but her vengeance suffered 
her not to rest ; she so wrought on Otho s 
feelings that he charged Emmeran with 
the crime. Emmoran would not toll the 
real circumstances ; he thought it uoblor 
to bear the unjust imputation than to dis 
grace her, and wreck the young king s 
happiness by disclosing the real occur 
rences, so he kept silence, and was be 
headed. The court was now at Modcna ; 
and tho Emperor, in accordance with 
immemorial custom, sat in tho hall to 
hear complaints and redlOM wrongs. 
] found him stood many knights and 
nobles, but he was sad for tho loss and 
tho supposed treachery of one of his 
best and bravest companions, and as he 
sighed and mused, there entered a palo 



8 



ST. ADELAIDE 



lady in a long black cloak, and she 
cried 

" Justice, my lord king ! " 
" Wliat is your complaint, lady ? " 
"My husband has been cruelly slain, 
and I crave vengeance on his murderer." 
"You shall have it. But who was 
your husband ? " 

Anna produced from under her cloak 
the ghastly head of Emmcran, and de 
manded to prove his innocence by " the 
judgment of God." 

Here, two forms of the story diverge. 
The Golden Legend, which does not give 
the name of Emmeran, but calls him 
" the governor of Modena," says Anna 
walked barefooted and uninjured over 
nine red-hot ploughshares, which proved, 
to the satisfaction of every one, that her 
cause was just, and that she spoke the 
simple truth when she said her husband 
was innocent. Otho confessed himself 
guilty of the unjust death of his knight, 
and said he was ready to submit to be 
beheaded, but the nobles and prelates 
gave him a delay of ten days, in which 
to investigate the matter; these being 
ended, they gave him seven days more, 
then six more, by which time all were 
convinced that the real criminal was the 
empress Mary. Then Otho "dyde do 
brenne his wyfe all quycke," and gave 
four castles as u crc-gcld to the widow of 
Emmeran. According to another and 
probably older tradition, the ordeal con 
sisted of plunging her arms into molten 
lead. She did not, indeed, take them 
out uninjured, but she bravely held them 
there, with unmoved countenance, keep 
ing her eyes fixed on the empress Mary, 
who gazed at her in horrible fascination. 
Anna died with her arms in the boiling 
lead and eyes fixed on the queen, who, 
seized by an impulse beyond her own 
control, threw herself at the Emperor s 
feet and confessed her crime. She was 
at once pronounced guilty of the death 
of Emmeran and Anna, and of untruth 
to her husband, and was then and there 
condemned to be burned alive. The 
sentence being executed the next day, 
Otho declared his own life forfeited for 
having condemned an innocent man ; but 
his nobles and the great ecclesiastics 
unanimously granted him a reprieve of 



seven years, at the end of which it would 
doubtless have been further extended 
had he lived. 

Meantime Adelaide had completed 
many of the works she had desired to 
do, and she saw that the accomplishment 
of other projects must remain unfulfilled 
or be left to other hands, for her work 
ing day was done, and she must now 
prepare for her final rest ; she had out 
lived many of her dearest friends, and 
all the near relations who at all ap 
proached her own age. A great afflic 
tion, too, was the death of her daughter, 
the abbess MATILDA, who had fulfilled 
her dearest aspirations, and to whom she 
looked for comfort to the last ; but she 
was cut off about a year before her 
mother. After Adelaide had retired 
from all worldly affairs, she thought it 
right to leave her seclusion, in response 
to the call of her nephew, lludolph III., 
of Burgundy, who had quarrelled with 
his subjects, and wanted her to make 
peace. She accomplished this for him, 
visiting on her way several churches and 
monasteries she had built or endowed. 
He came to meet her at Lausanne, and 
conducted her to Orbe, where the desired 
reconciliation took place. She now be 
took herself to the monastery of Saltz, 
in the diocese of Strasburg, where she 
spent the very short time she still had 
to live. 

Her talents, her wealth, her piety, her 
beauty, her superior education, her dis 
cretion, and the universal confidence and 
admiration inspired by her character, 
combined with her exalted station to 
render her a conspicuous figure in Europe 
for half a century. She is a rare ex 
ample of a woman having immense power 
and influence and invariably using it for 
good; almost as rare was the courage 
with which she bore misfortune and in 
justice ; for this woman, so great and so 
happy, had also known the depths of 
misfortune, insults, blows, starvation, the 
hardships and privations of a prison, the 
hairbreadth escapes of flight. St. Majolus, 
abbot of Cluny, who was at one time her 
confessor, considered that she never would 
have been the noble, magnanimous, chari 
table woman she was, but for these four 
months of imprisonment at Garda ; she 



ST. ADELAIDE 



had time to reflect on a great many 
things, and, by God s grace, she resolved 
nevi-r t&lt;&gt; condescend to spiteful retalia 
tions. Years after, when her enemies 
were in her power, she returned them 
good for evil. She never forgot a kind 
ness or remembered an injury. Besides 
many benefactions to divers churches, 
nunneries, and other monasteries, she 
resolved to make a thank-offering to God 
for her worldly prosperity, by building 
a church for each of the three crowns 
worn by her husband and son ; namely, 
those- of Germany, Italy, and the Empire. 
Accordingly, she built a monastery in 
the kingdom of Burgundy, at Paterniac, 

filled also Paterae and Peterlingen 

Mabillon), where her mother was buried. 
It was dedicated in honour of the Mother 
of God, and she gave it to St. Majolus, 
who was afterwards abbot of Cluny, 
and was succeeded, first at Paterniac, 
and then at Cluny, by St. Odilo. She 
next built a grand church, dedicated to 
the Saviour of the world, in her own town 
of Pavia. In l S7, twelve years before 
her death, she founded a monastery at 
Salsa, or Seltz, "sub liliertate Bomana" 
dedicated to God and St. Peter. It was 
eight years in building, and was con 
secrated by Widerald, bishop of Stras- 
burg, in 905. These arc the three great 
foundations named in St. Odilo s Life of 
Adelaide. Phele was also of her build- 
in. L% and her friend and director, St. 
feamagne, was its first abbot. 

By her first marriage, she had one 
child, Emma, who married Lothaire, king 
! France, and was the mother of Louis 
V.. called le Faineant, the last of the 
Oarlovingian kings; ho only reigned a 
io\v months, and was succeeded by Hugh 
&lt; apet, ( JS7, who was Adelaide s second 

uiisiu by birth, and nephew by marriage. 
l&gt;y her second marriage, besides children 
who died young, she had Otho II. and 
I&gt;. MATILDA, abbess of Qucdlinburg. 

Adelaide s romantic adventures were 
the subjects of song and legend for a 
:ury, particularly in Italy. Her life 
is promised by the Uollandists when 
their calendar arrives at the middle of 
December. The short life of her by St. 
Odilo, abbot of Cluny, her friend and 
.-sur. i&lt; a narrative of facts related 



to him by herself. It is preserved in 
Bouquet, Becneil de Documents ; Pertz, 
HI utirni cut" : Mabillon; Leibnitz; and 
other collections. Among the contem 
porary Minuiin-nfn of her time must bo 
mentioned the writings of Hrotswitha, a 
nun of Gandersheim, which was one of 
the great nunneries founded by the house 
of Saxony. (Sen ST. HADUMADA.) She 
was one of the earliest authoresses of 
Germany, and besides her dramas she 
has left a panegyric on Otho the Great. 

Many interesting particulars of the 
reign of Adelaide s husband, son, and 
grandson are pleasantly told by Giese- 
bivdit, Deutschlands Kaiserzeit. The 
Golden Legend gives the nucleus of two 
wonderful legends of Otho II. and Otho 
III., which are told at greater length 
and from older sources by Collin do 
Plancy. Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, 
and Gregorovius, Bom. in Mittelalter, 
give much interesting information about 
the state and the customs of Europe 
during the reigns of the three Othos. 
See also Ditmar s Chronicle; Muratori, 
Anna les ; Nouvellc Bioyraph ie Un iversellc ; 
Menzol, Hist, of Germany^ Yepez, 
Baillct, Butler, Wetzer u. Welt, Wattem- 
bach, etc. 

St. Adelaide (4), Feb. 5 (ADA, 
ALICE), V. of Willich. c. 1015. Daughter 
of SS. Mengo or Megeugoz and Gerbcrg, 
count and countess of Gueldres. Abbess 
of the Benedictine monastery at Willich, 
near Bonn, and afterwards of that of Our 
Lady of the Capitol at Cologne. She 
was educated in a cloister, and was a 
pious, sensible, and studious girl. Her 
parents, having lost a much-loved son in 
battle, determined to dedicate a largo 
portion of their wealth to the service of 
God. They accordingly built and richly 
endowed a monastery at Willich. Ade 
laide was appointed abbess of the new 
house, but before entering on this 
important charge she went to learn the 
regular observance in the monastery of 
Notre- Dame du Capitolo at Cologne. 
She ruled the houso at Willich for 
several years, and was distinguished for 
her charity, humility, and self-denial. 
Il&lt;r mother, ( |KI:I:I-:KI;, became a nun 
under her. and died at Willieh ; her 
father, 15. Mengo, lived three yearn 



10 



ST. ADELAIDE 



longer, and Adelaide buried him at 
Willich beside her mother. His day is 
Dec. 19. Her sister Bertrade was 
abbess of Notre Dame at Cologne. The 
fame of Adelaide s sanctity spread over 
the whole diocese, so that, on the death 
of Bertrade, the bishop invited Adelaide 
to be her successor. She removed to 
Cologne, and spent the remaining three 
years of her life there, still, however, 
maintaining constant intercourse with 
and a motherly interest in her Willich. 
She is said to have wrought many 
miracles both before and after her death. 
She procured by her prayers an abundant 
and unfailing spring of water in a place 
near Willich, where the peasants were 
in great distress for want of it. One of 
her nuns had so harsh a voice that she 
destroyed the harmony of the choir when 
she joined in the hymns ; but Adelaide 
struck her on the cheek, and she became 
permanently possessed of a voice so 
sweet and powerful as to be a great 
acquisition to the musical services of 
the community. Certain nuns were long 
too ill to join in the common employ 
ments of the rest, but when she rebuked 
them as useless and expensive, they at 
once recovered. She died at Cologne 
about 1015, and the nuns of Willich 
wished to have her buried amongst 
them ; but St. Heribert, the bishop, said 
he would not give up the body of the 
holy abbess on any account, not even if 
they could give him the body of ST. 
AGATHA for it. Adelaide, however, 
showed her preference for her first 
monastery, for her coffin floated up the 
Rhine without oars to Willich, and there 
she was buried. AA.SS. Helyot, Ordres 
Monastiqucs, v. 53. Bucelinus, Men. 
Ben. 

B. Adelaide (5) of Susa, Dec. 
19. c. 1010-1091. " The mighty Mar 
chioness," countess of Turin. Regarded 
as one of the founders of the house of 
Savoy. That family was already extend 
ing its borders on the ruins of the 
kingdom of Burgundy, but its first 
footing in Italy was given to it by the 
marriage with Adelaide, elder daughter 
and heir of Manfred, marquis of Susa, 
whose rule extended from the top of the 
Alps to the Dora Baltea and the Po. 



His wife was Bertha, daughter of Aubert, 
marquis of Ivrca, and sister of Hardouiu, 
king of Italy. 

Adelaide married three times: (1) 
Herman, duke of Suabia ; (2) Henry of 
Montferrat; (3) Odo of Savoy. It is 
supposed that she was not very young at 
the time of her first marriage. The 
marquisate of Susa could not be held by 
a woman, but she could transfer her 
claim to her husband. Accordingly, 
Herman obtained the investiture of the 
marquisate from his stepfather, the 
Emperor, Conrad II. Herman died, still 
young, in 1038, and Adelaide took upon 
herself the government of her father s 
inheritance. She soon married again, 
and it was not long before she was again 
a childless widow. In 1044 she married 
Odo, son of Humbert, of the race of the 
counts of Savoy, lord of the countships 
of Maurienue and Tarantaise, one of the 
most powerful princes of the kingdom of 
Burgundy. Humbert died in 1048, 
and was succeeded by his eldest son 
Amadeus I., surnamed Cauda, and he, 
in 1069, was succeeded by his brother 
Odo, the husband of Adelaide. Little 
is known of him ; Adelaide is the more 
prominent person. With masculine 
courage and energy, she knew right well 
how to rule. It was of immense import 
ance to the family destined to become so 
great that Adelaide could hold the 
command of the Burgundiau as well as 
the Italian possessions of the house. 
Far and wide the marchioness of Susa 
was known as a woman of no less decision 
than prudence. As her sous Peter and 
Amadeus grew up, she used them as 
assistants, but kept the power in her own 
hands. She maintained order and justice 
in her territories. She was grasping 
and hard, rather feared and respected 
than beloved. Her neighbours had to 
bo on the alert. She more than once 
took up arms against her own towns. 
She waged a long war with the citizens 
of Asti, and in 1070 she took the town 
and destroyed it. The year before that 
she had besieged Lodi and reduced it 
almost to a heap of rubbish. Thousands 
of persons were killed ; cloisters and 
churches were not spared. She inflicted 
so much misery that when she asked the 



ST. ADELAIDE 



11 



Pope for absolution ho had difficulty in 
devising u sufficient penance for her. 
was in touch with all the conflicting 
movements of that restless time, yet 
carried away by none of them, and 
ttlthoiigh upright and conscientious, she 
ki-pt hi-r eye constantly on the interests 
of her own family and country. She 
was an enthusiastic partisan of the 
(iinnan Imperial side against the Papal 
party ; but still she was religious, and 
favoured the ecclesiastical reforms then 
tmanating from Rome, including steps 
and protests against simony and the 
marriage of the clergy. Such was the 
woman whoso alliance was sought by 
the Emperor, Henry III., the lUack, in 
order to balance the power of two other 
masculine and masterful women, the 
marchioness Beatrice of Tuscany, and 
her daughter the countess Matilda, 
whose influence was often in the opposite 
scale to his interests. In 1055 he be 
trothed his son Henry at five years old 
to P&gt;ertha, the eldest daughter of Ade 
laide. In less than a year that good 
Emperor died. Henry IV. and l&gt;ertha 
were married July 13, 1066, but the 
young Emperor meantime had fallen into 
bad hands, and suspected everybody. 
He supposed his wife to be a tool of his 
enemies, and, notwithstanding her beauty 
and amiability, he lived apart from her, 
and in 1 "&lt;) .&gt; declared his intention of 
being divorced, although he made no 
accusation against her. This resolution 
was, however, overruled, and when 
almost under compulsion he brought her 
to court, he fell in love with her, and 
they continued to be devotedly attached 
to each other as long as Bertha lived. 

id of the brotherly co-operation of 
the Emperor and Pope when Henry III. 
planned reforms with Leo IX. and his 
successor, Victor II., twenty years after 
wards, there was a long and obstinate 
struggle going on between Gregory VII. 
(the famous Hildebrand i and Henry IV. 
A violent-tempered, self-indulgent youth 
like Henry could never be the victor in 
a long and complicated dispute and 
rivalry with Gregory, ft far-seeing, 
patient, determined man of extraordinary 
ability and blameless life. In 1076 
Henry drew upon himself the ban of the 



Church, which gave strength to many 
powerful rebels in his own country, 
while it hampered and depressed his 
adherents. It was most important to all 
his interests to have the sentence re 
scinded, and for this purpose ho resolved 
to go and meet the Pope, who was now 
on his way to cross the Alps and enter 
Germany, there to hold a council, which 
would probably depose the Emperor and 
set up in his place Rudolph of Suabia, 
who was married to Adelaide s younger 
daughter Adelaide. Henry s mother, 
li. AGNES, empress, was in great grief 
about him, but although Gregory had a 
warm regard for her, she was of little 
account in politics, and was powerless to 
help or guide her son. In his dire 
distress Adelaide of Susa undertook to 
assist him, and but for her aid ho would 
probably have lost his crown and his 
liberty. At the same time, she exacted 
from his necessity some increase to her 
own dominions, for she bargained for tho 
cession of five rich bishoprics as tho 
reward of her assistance. 

Beauregard supposes that the advan 
tage she then obtained from her son-in- 
law was tho right to certain territories 
and privileges in tho marquisate of 
Ivrea, to which she had a claim through 
her mother, but which she could not 
grasp without the imperial sanction. 
She must now have been very near 
seventy ; but she, with her son Amadous, 
came to meet the fugitive Emperor, his 
wife and infant son Conrad, and braved 
with them the hardships and difficulties 
of the passage across tho Alps in 
January, 1077. It was one of tho 
coldest winters ever known, and tho 
snow lay deep in Rome for weeks ; tho 
Rhone and tho Po were frozen so hard 
that horses and carriages passed over 
on tho ice. The usual routes were well- 
nigh impassable. They had oxen led 
by the peasants to trample a path Ixjforj 
them through tho masses of snow. TIi 
horses proceeded with tho greatest diffi 
culty, and some of them perished in tho 
struggle. Arduous as was tho ascent, 
their plight was even worse when they 
had passed the summit and begun to 
descend on the Italian side tho way was 
so steep and so slippery that they almost 



12 



ST. ADELAIDE 



despaired of getting any further. Creep 
ing, climbing, scrambling, rolling, came 
the men, cutting their hands on the ice. 
The women were dragged along in 
sledges made of ox-hides, the guides 
holding on to the ice by grappling-irons. 
At last they arrived at a hospitable 
monastery in the Val cVAosta. They 
were well received in Italy, where there 
seemed more favour for the king, and 
less for the Pope, than in Germany ; 
but even now all would be lost if Henry 
did not receive the Holy Father s abso 
lution, so, leaving his wife and child at 
Reggio, he hurried on, accompanied by 
his heroic old mother-in-law, to Canossa, 
where Gregory was resting in the im 
pregnable castle of his devoted partisan, 
the countess Matilda. These two 
famous women had so much power in 
the affairs of Italy that the king s fate 
was, to a considerable degree, in their 
hands. Matilda, though devoted to 
Gregory, pitied the humiliations and 
sufferings to which the Emperor was 
subjected, and it was she who at length 
prevailed on her guest to put an end 
to the cruel delays and abasement of his 
unfortunate penitent, so that after days 
of miserable entreaty, during which he 
shivered outside the gate in the garb 
of the humblest penitent, on Jan. 28, 
1027, he was admitted to the Pope s 
presence, and threw himself at his feet. 
Gregory gave him absolution, but made 
his own hard terms, to which Henry was 
obliged to agree. 

Adelaide s other son-in-law, Rudolph 
of Snabia, who still had a large party 
on his side, did not at once give up the 
struggle for the crown. He won a battle 
against Henry, but died of his wounds 
the next day. Adelaide lived fourteen 
years after the melancholy expedition 
to Canossa. She was still alive when, 
in 1084, Henry led an avenging army 
to Rome, and compelled Gregory to take 
flight to Salerno. 

In her old age her conscience was 
troubled, not apparently by the slaughter 
of her rebellious subjects, but because 
she had had three husbands. She tried 
to atone for her sins by works of bene 
ficence, and gave bountifully to reli 
gious institutions. Fructuaria and other 



monasteries throve under her patronage. 
She died very old, Dec. 19, 1091, at 
Canischio, where the remains of her 
tomb are still to be seen. By her third 
marriage she left five children Peter, 
to whom she bequeathed the marquisato 
of Italy ; Amadeus, called by the Italians 
Adelao; Odo, bishop of Asti; Bertha, 
the empress ; and Adelaide, who married, 
as his second wife, Rudolph of Suabia, 
the rival Emperor. He was unkind to 
his wife, and this circumstance was, 
perhaps, not without weight in Ade 
laide s ardent espousal of the fortunes 
of Henry and Bertha. 

Her life is promised by the Bollan- 
dists when their calendar comes down 
to her day. She appears in Ferrarius 5 
Catalogue of the Saints who are not in 
the Roman Martyrology. She occupies 
an important place in every history of 
the house of Savoy. Frezct, Uistoire 
de hi Maison de Savoie. Costa do Beau- 
regard, Memoire Historique de la Maixon 
royale de Savoie. Saiut-Genis, Savoie. 
Paradin, Chroniquc de Savoie. Sismondi, 
Hitoire des Fran^ais, iii. 161. Stephen, 
Hildebrand and his Times. Giesebrecht, 
Dcutscldands Kaiserzcit, iii. Biographic 
Universelle. 

Yen. Adelaide (6) Dec. 15. llth 
and perhaps the beginning of the 
12th century. Countess of Mispilin- 
gen. With her husband, Aewic, or 
Alwic, count of Sultz, she built the con 
vent of Alberspac, O.S.B., in Wittem- 
berg, dedicated in honour of the Holy 
Cross, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and 
All Saints. In 1095, at her husband s 
death, she became a nun. She is vene 
rated in the monastery of Zwifalt, on 
the Danube, three miles above Ulm. 
This abbey, in 1482, was joined to the 
congregation of Bursfeld. Gal. Christ., 
v., 1064, " La serie de douze abbes." 
Migne, Die. Buceliiius, Men. Ben. 

B. Adelaide (7), April 4, Sept. 1; 
translation, May 3 (ALAYSIA, ALICE, 
ALEYDIS, ELISABETH, etc.), c. 1105 or 
1110. Mother of St. Bernard of Clair- 
vaux. Called by Husenbeth "Saint. * 
Represented in a window on the north 
side of Cossey Hall Chapel, standing 
behind her son, St. Bernard. Daughter 
of Bernard, lord of Mombard. Wife of 



ST. ADKLAIDE 



Tescelin Sorus (sometimes called 1*. 
Tescelin &gt;, lord of Fontaines, a member 
of the ancient and powerful Burguncian 
nobility. Tescelin and Adelaide lived 
at the castle of Fontaines, near Dijon. 
They were kind and good to their vassals 
and the poor ; they maintained order and 
propriety and religious observances in 
their own house. Tescelin was dis 
tinguished by his valour in war, but 
from religious motives ho would never 
fight a duel. Adelaide nursed her seven 
children at her own breast, and tended 
them with her own hands, lest they 
should imbibe evil tempers or dis 
tempers from the milk of hirelings, or 
be taught anything unseemly by the 
attendants of their infant days. Both 
Tescelin and Adelaide were careful to 
bring up all their children in the fear 
of God and the love of their neighbours. 
Their only daughter was ST. HUMBELINE. 
Their sons were Guy, B. Gerard, St. 
Bernard (Aug. 20), Andrew. Bartho 
lomew, and Xivard. They all became 
monks eventually. Adelaide offered 
] &gt; niard more especially to God from 
his infancy, and brought him up with 
double care and tenderness until ho was 
old enough to be sent to the college of 
( hatillon, to be trained for the priest 
hood. Her prayers for him were an 
swered, even in her life ; for his piety, 
charity, innocence, and self-denial were 
wonderful in one so young. His greatest 
fame arose from his preaching the 
second Crusade, 1147, under Pope 
Eugcnius III., who had been one of his 
monks. Adelaide was considered a 
saint during her life, on account of her 
fasts, her hospital-visiting, and her other 
good deeds. She had a great devotion 
to St. Ambrose, and used to invite a 
number of clergy from Dijon to celebrate 
his festival. On the vigil of that day 
(the Great St. Ambrose s day is Dec. 
7 ; but perhaps this is St. Ambro- 
sinian, ] nitron of Fontaines, near Di 
jon, Sept. 1, as Adelaide seems to bo 
honoured on that dayj, in the year 
111", she was taken ill of a fever, and 
next day she received the last sacra 
ments, and while all her clerical com 
pany commended her soul to (n&gt;d, she 
joined in the prayers and responses, 



and died. St. Bernard was then I .i 
years old, and from that time he daily 
recited seven psalms for her soul. She 
was buried in the church of the mon 
astery of St. Benignus, at Dijou ; but, 
in 1250, the abbot of Clairvaux begged 
to have her body as a precious relic ; it 
was therefore solemnly taken up and 
translated to Clairvaux, and the transla 
tion is celebrated May 3. Mrs. Jameson, 
Sacred and Legendary Art, and Legends 
of the Monastic Orders. Henriquez, 
Lffia Clstercii. Husenbeth, Emblems of 
Saints. 

B. Adelaide (8), of Lanckuvade, or 
Lcnkwend, in Germany, Feb. 113, also 
called Aleyd the Penitent, c. 1200. She 
led a wicked life, and the devil tried to 
stifle her repentance and prevent her 
conversion by horrible apparitions. She 
became, however, a holy penitent and 
nun in the Cistercian convent of Lenk- 
wend. Bucelinus, Men. Ben. Henriquez, 
Lilia Ci*t. 

B. Adelaide (9), Aug. 29, 1211. 
Daughter of Casimir IT., king of Poland. 
Cistercian nun at Trebnitz, in the mon 
astery built by ST. HEDWIG. Adelaide 
is probably the nun Aleydis Virgo, to 
whom St. Hedwig told her prescience, 
or second sight, of the death of her son. 
Heuriquez, Lilia Cist. No authority for 
her worship. AA.SS. 

St. Adelaide (10), June 11, 15 
(ALETH, ALIX, ALIZETTE, ALIZON, etc.), 
1250. At the ago of 11, Adelaide of 
Scarbek, or Scharembeka, went into 
the Cistercian convent of La Cainbro 
(Camera S. Maria)), near Brussels. She 
wus soon the best scholar among the 
children, and continued to bo distin 
guished more and more, for all good 
qualities, for several years. One day, 
when they were all singing in the choir, 
the candle fell out of its stand, which 
was a sort of lantern, called abseonsa, in 
use in convents. Adelaide took it in her 
hand, and it lighted again of itself. In 
on lor that she might have no regard for 
anything earthly, God afilictod her with 
leprosy; and in consequence, she was 
separated from all her sister nuns, which 
was a great trial. A little building was 
erected for her. She was received there 
by her heavenly Spouse, who promised 



B. ADELAIDE 



to remain witli her as long as she lived. 
One night a pious woman saw Adelaide s 
dwelling brilliantly lighted up, and going 
nearer, saw the saint as if she were 
made of flame. Once when she was very 
ill, it was revealed to her that she should 
live a whole year longer and suffer much, 
and that her torments should avail for 
the living and for the dead ; therefore, 
when she lost her right eye, she offered 
that for the salvation of William, count 
of Holland, who had just been elected 
king of the Komans, 1247 ; and when 
she lost her left eye, she assigned the 
fruit of that penance to St. Louis, king of 
France (IX. of his name), who was then 
in Palestine with the crusading army. 
Although herself a leper, she had the 
privilege of curing other lepers by her 
touch. A golden cross was sent to her 
from heaven. On St. Ursula s day, she 
heard the nunssinging Matins,and prayed 
that, although excluded from the choir 
on earth, she might be associated with 
the sainted virgins in heaven ; she was 
answered that she should be placed not 
only with the companions of ST. URSULA, 
but in a higher rank. She died 1250, 
and her spirit w r as seen to be received 
by Christ and the angels. Henschenius, 
in AA.SS. Boll., from a Cistercian writer 
of the 13th century, June 11. Buce- 
linus, MCJT. Ben., June 11. A.R. M. Ci*t., 
June 15. 

B. Adelaide (11), or ALIX, Aug. 2, 
countess of Blois. 1243-1288. Daughter 
of John I., duke of Brittany. Married, 
1254, to John de Chatillon, first count 
of Blois. She went to the Holy Land 
in 1287, and died on her return, Aug. 
2, 1288. Her body was placed near that 
of her husband, in the abbey of la Guiche 
(which she had founded), near Blois. 
Collin de Plancy, Saintcs ct licnhciuruses. 

St. Adelberga, ETHELBURGA, queen 
of Northumberland. 

B. Adelina (1), ADELIND. 

St. Adelina (2), Oct. 20. c. li;&gt;2. 
V. Abbess. Granddaughter of William 
tho Conqueror. Sister of St. Yitalis, 
abbot and founder of the famous Cister 
cian monastery of Savigny, in Anjou. 
He built a house near his own, for 
Adelina and a community of nuns ; but 
after a few years he transferred them to 



Mortain, in La Manche, in Normandy, 
founded by their brother William, count 
of Mortain. Adelina s nunnery was 
popularly called L&lt;s Blandics, the White 
Ladies of Mortain. She died about the 
middle of the 12th century, and was 
buried at Mortain ; and about 100 years 
afterwards, was translated to Savigny, 
and laid beside her brother Yitalis and 
another brother, Godfrey, also abbot of 
Savigny. The church of Little Sod- 
bury, in Gloucestershire, is dedicated in 
her name. Boll., AA.8S. Migne, Die. 
aes allay es. Miss Arnold Forster, Dedi 
cations. 

B. Adelind, Aug. 28 (ADELINA (1), 
ADELINE). 8th and perhaps part of 
i th century. Founder and first abbess 
of Buchau, or Buchen, in Suabia. Born 
in the castle of Andechs. Represented 
distributing loaves to the poor. Sister 
of St. Hildegard, wife of Charlemagne. 
Married Hatto or Otho, count of Kessel- 
burg, who was killed, with their three 
sons, in a great battle against the Huns, 
at a place called afterwards the Valley 
of Tears. They had another son, a 
deacon, who died of grief soon after the 
death of his father and brothers. After 
the Huns were driven out of Germany 
by Charlemagne, Adelind founded a 
monastery in memory of her husband 
and sons ; buried them within its pre 
cincts ; took the veil, and became first 
abbess there. She died Aug. 28, and 
is honoured on this day or Aug 2 1 . 
Perier, the Bollandist, in AA.SS. Petin, 
Die. Hag. Moustier. Guenebault, Die. 
d Icon. 

St. Adeliza, ADA, ADKLA. 

St. Adeloga, HADELOGA. 

St. Adeltrude (1), Feb. 24, 25 
(ALDETUUDE, MADELTRUDE), V. 7th 
century. Abbess. Daughter of B. 
Vincent and ST. WALTRUDE, and grand 
daughter of SS. Walbert and BEUTILLA 
(1). Represented with rats and mice; 
but this is supposed, by Cahier, to bo 
a mistake for ST. GERTRUDE. While 
Adeltrude was a young girl, her aunt, 
ST. ALDEGUNDIS, like a careful house 
wife, ordered all the scraps of wax to 
be gathered together and melted into- 
one mass in a pot. It was allowed to- 
get too hot, ran over the edge into the 



ST. ADFALDU1) 



15 



fire, and 1 dazed up. Adcltrudo rushed 
to the fire, and took oft" the pot, which 
she placed safely on the ground without 
burning her hands or arms in the least 
a miracle which was attributed to her 
great devotion to the Virgin Mary. In 
660 she succeeded St. Aldcgundis as 
abbess of the convent of Maubeugc. 
Boll., AA.SS., Feb. 25. Martin, Feb. 
25. 

St. Adeltrude (2), March 19 (ADEL- 
TIIUDIS, AxoLKTurDE), V. 7th century. 
Daughter of Allowin, afterwards St. 
Bavo, patron of Ghent. Niece of ST. 
ADILIA. Adeltrude showed very early 
signs of piety. An angel foretold that 
she should never have any children, but 
should bring forth many good works. 
Her father was a worldly and dissipated 
man, until he was converted by the 
preaching of St. Amandus. He then 
betook himself to a life of solitude and 
penance, and eventually gave his estate 
to Amandus, to found a monastery and 
church, which, in 1559, became the 
cathedral of St. Bavon, of Ghent. Bavo 
died about 657. Boll., AA.SS., Mar. 19, 
"Lives of St. Bavo and St. Landoald." 
Butler, Lives. Baillet, Vies. Wion, 
Lignum Vitse. Le Glay, Gaule Belgique. 
St. Adeltrude (:);, Nov. 14. yth 
century. Wife of a count of Aurillac, 
who built a church and abbey there, 
under the invocation of St. Clement and 
rule of St. Benedict. In 855 they had 
a son, Gerald, whom they brought up so 
piously that ho became a great saint. 
Adeltrude was buried in St. Clement s 
Church, where her miracles drew a great 
concourse of pilgrims, until the IGth 
century, when the Calvinists dispersed 
her relics. P.B. Butler, " St. Gerald," 
Oct. i;;. 

St. Adelviva, Jan. 25 (ADELWII-T, 
ADUX.U.IF, ADI-\.\I.I\ A.lvrui LViVE). !&lt;&gt;!&lt;. 
Mother of St. 1 oppo, abbot. She mar 
ried Tizekin, a valiant warrior of Flan 
ders. Her son was a seven-months 
child, and such a poor little Hpe.-imrn 
of humanity that he would have died M 
soon as ho was born had not hi-; pious 
grandmother, by direction of God, or 
at least of the common sense with which 
Ho had endowed her, wrapped him in a 
very soft woollen cloth, and taken great 



care of him until ho had attained tho 
size and strength of other babies. To 
wards tho end of tho loth century, 
Tizekin was killed at Hasbain, in Bra 
bant, in a war between Arnulf, count of 
Flanders, and tho sons of Ragner, or 
Keguior, tho Long-necked, count of 
Mons and Valenciennes. Adelviva was 
left a young widow. Poppo, like other 
lads of his rank, went to the wars as 
soon as ho was old enough. Ho had 
not long been a soldier when he joined 
some monks in a pilgrimage to Jeru 
salem. After his return, he persuaded 
his mother to take tho veil. According 
to Mcuard, she lived for some time in a 
nunnery at Verdun ; and afterwards in 
a cull adjoining the monastery of St. 
Vitus, in tho same town, for it was an 
ancient custom, long continued in the 
Order of St. Benedict, that, attached to 
a monastery of men, were a few cells, 
called dusaSj or inclusoria, in which one 
or more nuns might live. They were 
under tho rule of the abbot, and none 
but ho had access t j them. Her miracles 
began before she had retired from secu 
lar life. She relighted an extinguished 
candle by merely taking it in her hand 
while she was at her prayers. While 
she prayed at tho tomb of St. Cyricus&gt; 
he and St. Amandus of Utrecht and 
many other saints appeared to her. 
1 oppo became abbot of Stavelo, a 
monastery founded by St. Eemacle, in 
the 7th century. A contemporary Life 
of St. Poppo, by Everhelm, abbot of 
Haumont, is preserved by Mabillou, 
AA.SS. 9 O.S.B. Tfau*j t m*de France. 
Ituiuart, Ada. Saussaye, Mart. Gnlll- 
fnnnni, calls Adelviva "Saint." Buce- 
liinis and Meiiard say " Blessed." 
St. Adeneta, ADA OF LK 31 LHB, 
St. Adeodata, July 5. Tamayo, 
say the I.olhmdists, is a wonderful 
digger up of saints, and appears to 
consider that St. Gregory tho Great has. 
canonized every person whose name he 
mentions in his writings. Tamayo calls 
Adeodata a Benedictine nun, and says 
slie WHS adorned with supernatural gifts, 
and died in Etruria. Boll., AA.SS. 
St. Adfalduid or ATAI.I&gt;UII&gt;, Sept. 

V. .Daughter of St. Itomarif, I 1 
8. . A holy nun with her sister, &gt; i . 



16 



ST. ADILIA 



GEGOBERGA, tinder ST. MACTAFLEDE. 
The BollandisU mention her among the 
prsetermissi, Sept. o&lt;&gt;. There seems to bo 
a doubt about this daughter of Komaric ; 
she is not named in the oldest accounts 
of his family. Saussaye calls her 
" Blessed." Mart. Gallicanum. 

St. Adilia or ODILIA (2), June 30, 
Oct. 1, V. Abbess. O.S.I*. 7th cen 
tury. Daughter of the count of Hainault. 
Sister of St. Bavo. Aunt of ADEL- 
TRUDE (2). Abbess of St. Martin du 
Mont, a large Benedictine house at Orp, 
in Namur. Her convent was on a hill, 
and many pilgrims passed by the bottom 
of it without coming up. As hospitality 
was part of the rule of her Order, she 
built a church and hospice for beggars 
and travellers at the foot of the hill, 
and removed her community thither, 
that she might relieve their wants and 
be edified by the conversation of holy 
persons who were on pilgrimage. Migne s 
Dictionary says, honoured at Orp-le- 
Grand, near Judoque, in Brabant. Pape- 
broch. AA.SS. Boll. Bucelinus, Men. 
Ben. Martin, Surius, and French Mart. 
Molanus, Indiculo. 88. Beljii, places 
Adilia in the time of Childeric. Chil- 
deric II. reigned during part of 670, 
and was the son of ST. BATHILDIS. 

St. Adisela, Nov. 18, M., appears 
in the Lalbean Mart. Boll., AA.SS. 
Supplement, iii. 

St. Adjola or AJOLA, June 1, abbess 
at Bourges in the 7th century. AA.SS. 
Boll. 

St. Adla, ABDELA. 
St. Adnetta, ADA OF LE MANS. 
St. Adolena, ADELA OF PFALZEL. 
St. Adonette, ADA OF LE MANS. 
Gahicr, Cfirarteristiqucs. 

St. Adozina, Aug. 5, V. O.S.B. 
] i &gt;th century. Daughter of the count 
of Agueda, in Portugal. She imitated 
the heroic virtues of her brother, St. 
Rozendo, and followed him to the 
monastery of Cella Nova, in Galicia, 
where they took the habit of the Brothers 
of the Order of St. Benedict, and kept 
their rule. She died in the convent of 
Oporto. Azevedo, Pantheon. 

St. Adrechild, ADA OF LE MANS. 
St. Adrehild, ADA OF LK MANS. 
St. Adriana (1), Sept. 17, M. in the 



time of the Emperor Adrian. AA.SS. 
Appendix. 

B. Adriana (2), or UADUIANA, Aug. 
10, 27, July 16, O.8.F. tJ2U2. Sister 
of ST. MAUGAIIET of Cortona, converted 
by the example of her penitence, and 
like her, took the habit of the Third 
Order of St. Francis, as did their friend 
Pi. GILIA or EGIDIA of Cortona, and, 
both became companions of Margaret, 
in her works meet for repentance, un&lt;l 
died before her. All three are buried 
in the church of the Friars Minors, in 
Cortona (Jacobilli, SS. dcW Umbrin I. 
S. F. Ordenskalcndar says Adriana died 
immediately after winning the indul 
gence of Portiuncula at Assisi, and went 
straight into heaven, without passing 
through the fires of purgatory. A note 
in the same calendar, Aug. 2, the Feast 
of Portiuncula, says that plenary in 
dulgence is to be had once for one s self, 
and afterwards for the poor souls in 
purgatory, as often as, after Absolution 
and Holy Communion, one visits a church 
of the Franciscan brothers, and prays, 
"nach der Mcinumj der katholischen 
Kir die." 

St. Adumade, HADUMADA. 
St. Adunalif, ADELMYA. 
St. -/Egina, May 18 (AcxA, EGENA), 
M. at Constantinople. AA.SS. Boll. 

St. -imiliana. There are two of 
this name in the R.M. See EMILIANA. 

St. -^Erais or HERAIS, March 4. Put 
to the sword, with 15o other martyrs 
mentioned in a MS. Mcnca at Grotta 
Ferrata, and in some other Greek 
calendars. AA.SS. 

St. Aesia, June G (AYKSIA, EUSEBIA), 
M. 1st century. Matron. Commemo 
rated with ST. ZEXAIS, or Si &gt;\\. Dis 
ciple of St. Pancras, bishop of Tauro- 
meiiium (now Taonnina), in Sicily. 
AA.88. 

St. Affidia, or AITII.IA, May^G, M. 
at Milan, under Maximian. AA.88. 

St. Affrenia, or AFI:A, Oct. i), M. 
P.13. 

St. Affrica, abbess of Kildare, 7:;s. 
Colgan. 

St. Afra (1), May 24, M. at Brescia, 
c. 133. Patron of Brescia. Wife of the 
prefect of Brescia, under the Emperor 
Hadrian. This Emperor is represented 



ST. AM; A 



17 



in the legend as a determined persecutor 
of the Christians. When ho visited 
Brescia, part of the entertainment pro 
vided for him was that two Christian 
brothers, SS. Fanstus and Jovita, were 
placed in the arena, to be devoured by 
lions and leopards ; the beasts, however, 
lay down at tho feet of the saiuts, and 
defended them from the bears that 
attacked them. Tho confessors chal 
lenged the Emperor to order tho lord of 
the town and his pagan priests to bring 
their idol Suturnus into the arena, say 
ing that if he would deliver them, they 
would worship the Deity. The idol was 
brought ; tho bears instantly broke it in 
pieces, then threw themselves on the 
priests and the governor, and toro them 
limb from limb. As soon as Afra heard 
her husband s fate, she rushed to tho 
amphitheatre and assailed the Emperor 
with cries and reproaches. She said he 
had made her a widow, and his god was 
powerless to help her. She threw her 
self at the feet of the servants of Christ, 
and begged them to give her a sign 
whereby she might believe in tho one 
true God. The Emperor tried in vain to 
comfort her. He promised her a nobler 
husband, but she said, " I do not weep 
for my widowhood, but because my hus 
band has lost his soul." To put a stop 
to her abuse of his gods, Hadrian broke 
up the assembly. Tho two martyrs 
commanded the wild beasts to conduct 
Afra safely into the desert, which they 
did, followed by the bulls which had 
been turned into the arena to fight with 
them. Fanstus and Jovita were led in 
bonds to Milan. There they were given 
for a prey to tigers and bears. These 
they ordered to go and join tho lions and 
leopards in the deserts, and guard St. 
Afra until they should be sent for. Tho 
beasts obeyed them. Tho martyrs 
Faustus and Jovita were dragged hither 
and thither, and at last came to Rome, 
Y.-IMTO they were again pitted against 
wild beasts to make sport for tho people. 
The savage creatures humbled them- 
s-lves at the feet of the saints. Tho 
gates flow open, and the beasts that had 
been despatched from Jlrescia and Milan 
appeared, bringing Afra with them. 
She lifted up her voice, and warned tho 



people to believe in tho one true God 
and to repent of their sins. Faustus and 
Jovita reminded the Emperor of the cir 
cumstances under which he had first seen 
Afra, and ho said she must bo a sor 
ceress. The people began to cry out 
that the God of Faustus and Jovita must 
be the true God. The two confessors 
commanded the beasts which had brought 
Afra to slay those which they found in 
the Roman amphitheatre. They did so 
in a moment, and then harmlessly de 
parted. Faustus and Jovita next led 
Afra to tho catacombs, to bo baptized 
by tho bishop. (The legend calls him 
Linus, but Linus was not bishop of 
Rome at this date.) They then all went 
to Milan, and thence to Brescia, where 
the people came out to meet them, and 
brought them into the city with hymns 
of joy. They and many of their fellow- 
Christians wore soon condemned to 
death. The soldiers led them out on 
the road to Cremona, where they all 
knelt down. Tho men were beheaded 
by gladiators, arid Afra was smitten on 
the head by tho guards with their swords, 
and so completed her happy martyrdom. 
B.M. May :&gt;4. The Bollandists give her 
Acts, which are manifestly fabulous, on 
May 2o. Her church, on the site of a 
temple of Saturn, is the oldest ecclesi 
astical foundation in Brescia. It was 
entirely rebuilt in the 17th century, and 
is now, of course, very ugly. Hare, 
Cities of Italy. 

St. Afra (2), Aug. 10, M. Honoured 
with 11 men, 13 virgins, and seven, 
soldiers. AA.SS. 

St. Afra (3), Dec. 18, V. M. Mart. 



St. Afra (4) of Augsburg, Aug. 5 
AuKA, APKA, etc.), M. 307. Patron of 
Augsburg, Meissen, and female peni 
tents. Represented with her hands tied 
to a stake (Liber Cronicarum) ; bound to 
a tree in flames (Ikonograpltie) ; sur 
rounded with flames (Die Attrilnifc der 
Jldliiji //) ; 1 toiled in a cauldron (Husen- 
beth, Kmblfitix) ; holding a log or faggot, 
to denote that she was bnrncd alive 
(Guenebault, Die. Icon.). 

St. Narcissus, a Spanish Christian 
priest, and his deacon, Felix, being 
driven from their own country in the 

c 



IS 



ST. AFRA 



persecution under Diocletian, happened 
to come to Augsburg, and asked for 
hospitality at the house of Afra, not 
knowing that she was a courtesan. She 
and her three maids prepared supper for 
them, supposing them to be the sort of 
guests they were accustomed to enter 
tain. Narcissus said a prayer and sang 
a psalm before beginning to eat. Afra 
asked what he meant by it, and hearing 
that her visitors were Christians, she 
said, " You have made a mistake in 
coming here, for we are sinners." Nar 
cissus told her Christ came to save sin 
ners, and exhorted her at once to break 
with her wicked life, and repent and 
Income a Christian. The four women 
were converted by his persuasion, and 
when the persecutors came to look for 
the two Christians, she hid them under 
heaps of flax, first in her own and then 
in her mother s house, until she could 
send them away in disguise. Her 
mother s name was HILARIA ; she was 
already a Christian, and had tried in 
vain to convert Afra. Very soon Afra 
was accused of being a Christian, and of 
having aided the escape of persons re 
sisting the laws. She was brought 
before a judge, who said, " How is it 
that a courtesan can be a Christian ? 
Where is the purity of life which the 
followers of Christ profess ? " She 
answered, " I am indeed unworthy of the 
name of Christian, but Christ came to 
save sinners. He will accept my mar 
tyrdom, and wash me from my sins." 
She was condemned to be burned on an 
island in the river Lech. Her maids 
stood on the bank and watched her mar 
tyrdom. A boy went and told Hilaria 
that her daughter had been burnt to 
death, not accepting deliverance. A few 
days afterwards Ililaria and the three 
maids were taken and put to death, and 
are honoured as saints and martyrs. 
The names of the maids were DKJNA, 
I -li \OMIA, and EUTROPIA. The skeleton 
of Afra is shown at Augsburg, in the 
church dedicated in her name and that 
of St. Ulrich ; the bones appear through 
the most exquisite lace, and the skull 
and fingers are resplendent with jewels. 
EM. Baillet, Vies. Butler, Lives. 
Dr. J. M. Neale. Mrs. Jameson, tincred 



&lt;m&lt;l Li fjrndimj Art. One of the Saints 
VALERIA is said to be identical with St. 
Afra of Augsburg. 

St. Afra (5) of Poitiers, Dec. 13 
(ABRA, APIA, APRA), V. 4th century. 
Daughter of St. Hilary, bishop of 
Poitiers. Ho was of an illustrious family 
in Gaul; was converted about 350, and 
became bishop about 353. On account 
of his opposition to Arianism, he was 
banished by the Emperor Constantius to 
Phrygia, 35G, and remained in exile 
three years. He left his wife at Poitiers 
with their only child, a girl of 13 
or thereabouts. From the time of his 
conversion, the bishop had wished and 
prayed that his daughter should never 
be a worldly woman, but live and die a 
virgin consecrated to Christ ; so when, 
during his banishment, his wife wrote to 
him on the subject of a marriage that 
seemed to promise well for her happi 
ness, he wrote to Afra, giving her leave 
to decide the matter for herself. The 
man whom her mother was inclined to 
accept for her was young, beautiful, of 
good character, very rich, and in every 
way a fit mate for a Christian maiden of 
good family ; but Hilary told her that if 
she would refuse him she might have a 
Husband more noble, more beautiful, 
more powerful, kinder, richer ; if she 
would renounce all jewels and gay 
clothes, her Bridegroom would give her 
robes of dazzling whiteness, and jewels 
of unimaginable splendour ; a life above 
all petty vexations and ambitious ; trea 
sures that rust and moth could not in 
jure ; possessions that death itself could 
not take away. Afra followed her 
father s advice, and on his return ho 
prayed that the Lord would take her to 
Himself. She died happily about 360, 
without pain or disease. Her mother 
then entreated Hilary to obtain of God 
the same favour for her. In the words 
of the Golden Legend, " He sent toforo 
his wyf and doughter." Hilary did 
about 308. His letter to Afra is still 
extant, and so is one of two hymns which 
he wrote and sent her at the same 
time. It begins, " Lucis Lnrgitor s^lii- 
dide." Tillemont. P&gt;utlcr. AA.SS. 

St. Agaieta or GAIANA, Sept. 3 &gt;. See 
RlPSIMA. 



SS. AGAPE, CHIOXIA, AND IRKNK 



19 



Agapa, ACAIM:, AOAIM-S, and AUAI-IA 
eeein to bo forms of the same name, 
generally called AGAI-I:. 

St. A.2:apa, Nov. u&lt; &gt;, V., is mentioned 
in the Jl/ar////v.A &lt;&gt;//"//&lt; Bichfnoviente^ i.&gt; . 
the copy of the Mart, of St. Jerome used 
in the old German monastery of 
Reichenau. AA.8S. 

SS. Agape &lt; 1 &gt;, Pistis, and Elpis, 
Sept. 17, VV. MM. FAITH, HOIT:, and 
CHAUITY i //./. &gt; are so called in the 
]5yzantinc Church. Xeale, Ifolij Eastern 
Church. 

St. Agape ( 2 i, Feb. 15, V. M. 27& 
Patron of Terano. A disciple of St. 
Valentine, bishop of Interamna. There 
are several places called Interamna ; 
this IB probably Terauo. She and her 
companions led a religions life there, 
and were put to death soon after their 
master. The inhabitants hold the 
festival of their patrons, of whom 
A alentinc is chief, on four days, Feb. 1 4, 
K 17. EM. AA.SS. Jacobilli 
says St. Agapo s house was not at 
Terano, but at a place called Fra le 
Torri. outside the town of Terni ; that 
the house was built in 255 by St. Valen 
tine ; that with Agape were her sister, 
ST. THIOMA or TEOXIA, and 33 nuns, 
the chief of whom were SS. CHIOXIA, 
CASTTLA, and STNCA. . Santi dclV Umbria, 
Hi. 1M5. ) ST. DOMMNA i 1) seems to bo 
one of those honoured with them, but 
Jacobilli places her martyrdom three 
centuries later, in the time of Totila. 

SS. Agape (3) and Chionia, April 

I Irene, April 5. c.304. Famous 

martyrs in the tenth persecution, which 

red in the time of Diocletian. 

Their names are in tlio li&lt;nnan Martyro- 

/;/./ as martyrs sit Thessalonica. The 

down to us in different 

forms. I give one from the .FA* 

. : a second from the Aftn 

N///r/, ,////. when- Hcnschenius derives 

it from ;ui ancient /,// of St. Anastn.- 

and a third from P&gt;aillet ( April 1 ), win. 

considers their authentic Acts, published 

by Kuinart, more reliable than the 

Authority followed by I lenschcnius. 

Vega, in the FA/x Sanctonm^ says that 
&gt;S. Agape, Chionin, and Irene or Yrnea 
were the maids of ST. A \\-i\-i\, and 
shared her imprisonment. Instead of 



putting them immediately to death as 
recorded in the story of St. Anastasia 
the governor thought them too beautiful 
for such a fate, and determined to save 
them as slaves for himself. As they 
despised his clemency and admiration, 
ho shut them up in a kitchen. When 
he went to visit them, they became 
invisible. The pots and pans took their 
forms, so that the three saints remained 
unmolested while the deluded governor 
embraced and kissed the unresisting 
kitchen utensils till his face and clothes 
were black and dirty. When he came 
out his servants took him for a devil, 
struck him with their fists and sticks, 
and then ran away from him. lie went 
to the Emperor to complain of their 
conduct, but every one thought he was 
mad, and began to beat him, spit at him, 
and throw sticks and stones at him. 
The devil had so completely deceived 
him that he could not see his own 
disfigurement, nor understand the reason 
of all this ill treatment. He thought he 
and his clothes were white and clean, 
and as everybody told him the contrary 
he supposed himself bewitched by the 
three girls. He next ordered their 
clothes to be taken off. This was found 
impossible ; the more the servants 
pulled, the tighter the saints garments 
stuck to them. At last the governor, 
exhausted and puzzled, fell asleep, and 
slept so long and so soundly, and snored 
so loudly that no one could awake him, 
and if the devil hasn t taken him he is 
snoring there still. The three Christian 
maidens were put to death. 

The second version of the story is as 
follows : 

When St. Chrysogonus was sent to 
Aquileia by Diocletian, St. Anasta 
his disciple and friend, followed him to 
visit the imprisoned Christians and bury 
tin- martyrs there as she had dono at 
Home. Chrysogonus was beheaded at 
A.pia Gradata (Grao, in Friuli), and his 
I fuly thrown into the sea. It was soon 
washed ashore at a place called Adsaltns. 
a small estate where throo sisters, 
Christian*, named Ajrapc, ( liionia, and 
Irene, lived with an aged priest named 
Xoilus. They took up the body of the; 
martyr, and buried it with great care 



20 



SS. 



, CHIONIA, AND IRENE 



and reverence in a subterranean chamber 
of the house. St. Chrysogonus after 
wards appeared in a dream to Zoilus, 
and told him that Diocletian would order 
the three sisters to be seized in nine 
days, that God would cause them to bo 
comforted by His servant Anastasia, but 
that Zoilus himself should not live to 
see their imprisonment. While he was 
telling his dream to the sisters, Anas 
tasia entered the house, saying, " Where 
are my three sisters whom my master 
Chrysogonus recommended to my care ? " 
They received her gladly, showed her 
the place where Chrysogonus was buried, 
and begged her to stay some time with 
them. She stayed one night, and then 
returned to Aquileia to attend to the 
wants of the Christians who were in 
prison. As she left the house St. 
Zoilus went to the Lord. Diocletian 
soon sent for the three sisters, and asked 
them who had taught them their vain 
superstitions. He offered them husbands 
out of his own palace as the reward of 
their renunciation of Christianity. As 
they were steadfast in the faith, he sent 
them to prison, where they were visited 
by Anastasia. There was great poverty 
among the Christians in those days. 
They all used to come to Anastasia for 
help. She daily prayed that she might 
not die until she had expended on them 
the last farthing of the sum she had 
obtained by the sale of her patrimony. 
Diocletian took the Christian prisoners 
to Macedonia. On his arrival there he 
ordered Dulcicius, the governor, to try 
them all, and torture and slay those who 
persisted in their religion, but to offer 
honours and other rewards to such as 
consented to sacrifice to the gods. When 
the three sisters were brought before 
him in their turn, he was struck by their 
beauty. 

Here follows almost exactly the kitchen 
scene given in the Spanish Flos 
^onctorum, except that in this version of 
the story Dulcicius falls asleep on the 
judgment-seat, and awakes when carried 
into his own house. Sisinnus is then 
appointed to continue the trial. Ho 
condemns Agape and Chionia 1o bo burnt. 
They die praying in the midst of the 
flames, but their bodies and even their 



clothes are uninjured by the fire. Irene, 
who was younger, was condemned to a 
more cruel fate. As she was being led 
away by guards to the place of her doom, 
two soldiers appeared, and said, " The 
governor sends us after you to order you 
to take Irene to the place that wo will 
show you." They proceeded to the top 
of a mountain and sat down. The t\vo 
soldiers told the guards to go and tell 
Sisinnus that Irene was there, according 
to his orders. When Sisinnus saw that 
he was the subject of a trick, he was very 
angry, and rode off in haste to the 
mountain, where he saw the beautiful 
Irene praying and singing hymns. He 
rode round and round from morning until 
evening without ever being able to get 
near her. At last he was so enraged 
that he took a bow from one of his 
attendants and shot her with three 
arrows. She died rejoicing that she was 
accounted worthy to rejoin her sisters so 
soon. Her body was taken by the 
servants of St. Anastasia and buried with 
those of Agape and Chionia. 

The third form of the legend says 
that SS. Agape, Chionia, and Irene were 
martyred at Thessalonica, in Macedonia, 
with their companions, CASIA, PHILIPPA, 
and EUTYCHIA, and a man named Agatho. 
The three sisters lived in their father s 
house at Thessalonica. They are called 
virgins in some calendars ; but it is more 
probable, from their answers during the 
trial, that they were all married. When 
Diocletian ordered the destruction of a]l 
the sacred books of the Christians, they 
found a safe hiding-place for their own 
and some others that belonged to the 
community. They fled to a mountain, 
where they remained hidden from their 
persecutors for a year. When they were 
brought to trial, they were careful not 
to betray those who had fed or otherwise 
assisted them in their trouble. They 
declared that their father did not know 
where they were during that time, and 
that the books were hidden from their 
most intimate friends ; " even," said 
Irene, " from our husbands." Agape 
and Chionia were burnt to death. Eut v- 
chia, who was a widow, was remanded to 
prison until after the birth of her child, 
which was imminent. Dulcicius, the 



ST. AGATHA 



21 



governor, tried to persuade Irone, who 
was much younger than her sisters, to 
nice their superstitious. lie was 
- i -riitcd ut her firmness. Seeing that 
she wished to share the martyrdom of 
her &lt;i&gt;ti-rs, and did not fear the flames, 
he condemned her to degradation, and 
ordered her to bo kept in a place where 
every one should have power to insult 
her. She was to bo guarded by one 
7. -imus, who was to bring her a loaf 
from the governor s palace every day. 
Zosimus and all his servants were to bo 
put to death if Irene stirred from tlio 
phii-e. She was, however, miraculously 
defended from all harm, and after a feu- 
days Dulcicius had her burnt in tho 
place where her sisters had glorified 
in the same manner a few days 
before. 

Tho subsequent fate of their com 
panions is not told, but the Church 
honours them among the martyrs. 

SS. Agape (4), Domna ( 1 ), and 
Theophila (2), Dec. 28. E.M. See 
DOMNA. 

Besides the above, seven saints of tho 
name of Agape are commemorated as 
martyrs in the early persecutions. 

St. Agapia, May ;U,M. at Gerona, 
in Spain. AA.SS. 

St. Agapia sometimes means AGAPE. 

St. Agatha ( 1 ), Feb. 5, V. M. 251. 
Called in Norway AAGOT ; in Spain 
AOUEDA and GADEA ; in different parts 
of France, APT, APIITE, APTHE, CIIAPHTE, 
CHAPTHE, CHATTE, YK; in tho Iluthe- 
nean Calendar, AGATA. 

She is one of tho great patronesses of 
the Western Church ; her name is iu the 
canon of the Mass. She is patron saint 
of the island and Order of Malta ; of 
Scala near Amain, Gallipoli in Italy, 
Capua, Messina, Catania, Mirandola ; 
and of nurses. Her aid is specially in 
voked against fire, colic, and diseases of 
tho 1.: 

ii -pivs -nled in the midst of flames, or 
with her breasts being cut off. Ilusen- 
beth says there is a picture of her in the 
Pitti Palace at Florence, by Sebastian 
del Piombo, iu which executioners aro 
cutting off her breasts, and that a repre 
sentation of her was formerly to be seen 
on tho rood screen of St. John s Church 



in tho Maddermarket at Norwich, hold 
ing her left breast in pincers. 

Palermo disputes with Catania tho 
honour of being her birthplace. She 
was living at Catania when Quintianus, 
governor of Sicily, persecuted the Chris 
tians in the reign of the PJmperor Decius, 
in the seventh general persecution of the 
Church. He wished to take St. Agatha 
for himself, on account of her great 
beauty ; but being unable to make any 
impression on her, ho gave her in charge 
to Froudisia, a wicked woman with nine 
daughters worse than herself, promising 
them great rewards if they could seduce 
Agatha from Christianity and virtue. 
As they failed to do so, she was brought 
before the governor and tried as a Chris 
tian. Being asked who she was, she 
answered, "I am a Christian, and the 
servant of Jesus Christ." " Abjure thy 
Master," said Quintianus, " and servo 
our gods, or I will have theo tortured." 
She was then bound to a pillar, and her 
breast torn with iron shears ; she was 
rolled on potsherds, and after various 
other tortures, she was cast into a dun 
geon. St. Peter, attended by an angel 
carrying a torch, appeared to her and 
healed her wounds with ointment. Quin- 
tiauus, finding that she was healed of 
tho wounds inflicted by tho torturers, 
ordered her to be burnt alive ; bnt no 
sooner was she placed in the fire than an 
earthquake shook the city. Tho people, 
believing it to bo on account of the 
Christian maiden, insisted on her imme 
diate release from the flames, and threat 
ened to burn down the governor s palace 
if he did not comply with their demand. 
She was again put in prison, but prayed 
that she might die at once, which she 
did, and was buried by tho Christians in 
a porphyry tomb. About a year after 
wards the city was threatened with de 
struction by an eruption of Mount Etna. 
All the inhabitants fled for refuge to St. 
Agatha s tomb. They took her veil, 
which was kept there, fixed it on a lance, 
and went in procession to meet tho 
torrent of lava. The glowing mass was 
coming close to tho walls, but when con 
fronted with tho sacred relic it turned 
aside. All tho heathen who witnessed 
this miracle were converted and baptized. 



22 



ST. AGATHA 



Solomon s Song viii. 8 is supposed by 
some theologians to foretell the tortures 
of St. Agatha. 

Her name is in the Roman Nartyro- 
logy, the Canon of the Mass, the Leg- 
gendario dclle Santa Vergini, and all the 
chief collections of lives or legends of 
saints. Her Acts are said by Baillet to 
be of doubtful authenticity, especially 
those preserved in the Greek Church. 
Her worship is undoubtedly very old. 
It was universal in Italy in the 4th 
century, and in Africa in the 5th. Her 
commemoration by the Church has this 
peculiarity, which it shares with that of 
ST. AGNES, that the psalms of her office 
are taken from the " Common of Saints " 
of the male sex, to remind the faithful 
of the super-feminine courage of the 
holy maiden. He adds that the schis 
matic English, though they have ex 
punged her name from their new liturgy, 
have retained it in their calendars, that 
the people may not forget the virtues of 
the early martyrs. E.M. Golden 
Legend. Villegas, from Bede, Usuard, 
and Metaphrastes. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred 
and Legendary Art. AA.SS. Thiers, 
Traite dcs superstitions. 

In Norway, the legend is that she was 
brushed to death, wherefore girls abstain 
from brushing their hair on her day. 
Another legend in that country is that a 
lady named Agathe, or Aagot, had her 
nose and ears eaten off by mice. They 
only spared the rest of her body on her 
vowing to keep St. Agatha s day holy 
ever after. This story is told also of 
ST. GERTRUDE of Nivelle. The day is 
marked on the clogs (runic calendars) 
by a mouse. Aagot s Mcsxa was the 
Norwegian name of the day. Report 
xx. of the Cambridge Antiquarian 
Society, " Description of a Norwegian 
Calendar of tlie Fifteenth Century: 

St. Agatha ( 2 ), May 8. One of the 
many martyrs at Byzantium, commemo 
rated with St. Acacius, a native of Cap- 
padocia and a Roman centurion. Their 
names are not mentioned in his Acts, 
given by Henschenius from a Greek 
manuscript at Grotta Fcrrata, but the 
martyrs commemorated with him in the 
old martyrologies are supposed to be his 
fellow - prisoners and converts; about 



28 of them were women. Henschenius, 
AA.SS., gives the date 20;j ; but if St. 
Acacius was put to death, as his Acts 
say, under Maximianus, it must have 
been a century later. 

St. Agatha (3), April 3, M. in Misia. 
Mart. lUiinovicnse. 

St. Agatha (4), Dec. 12. Sth cen 
tury. Nun at Weinbrunn, in Germany. 
Disciple of ST. LIOBA. Bucelinus, Men. 
Ben. AA.SS. prsefer, June 12, 28, Sept, 
28, Dec. 12. Ferrarius, Cat. Gen., 
makes her a nun at Wimborne, which is, 
perhaps, a mistake ; but she may have 
gone from Wimborne with Lioba, and 
lived with her in Germany. Wion, 
Lignum Vitoe, says Wimbrun in Germany. 

St. Agatha (5) Hildegard, Feb. 
5. ( 1024. Sometimes called by either 
name alone. Patron of Carinthia. Wife 
of Paul, count palatine of Carinthia. 
They lived either at Stein or at Rech- 
berg, a castle on a rock rising abruptly 
to a considerable height above the river 
Drave. Paul, having rashly listened to a 
false accusation against his wife, rushed 
furiously to her room at the top of the 
castle, where she was saying her prayers 
with Dorothy her maid, and threw them 
both out of the window. Instead of 
being killed, they arrived unhurt on the 
opposite side of the river, at the village- 
of Mochlingen. Paul, struck by the 
miracle and horrified at his own violence, 
built the church of St. Paul of Moch 
lingen on the spot. As soon as he had 
heard Mass there, he set out on a seven 
years pilgrimage, as a penance for his 
injustice and violence. On his return, 
he sat down to rest under a tree, and 
there he heard the bells of his church 
ring for midday prayer. Then he died. 
Agatha survived him for a few years, 
and made some charitable religious foun 
dations. 

The messengers of the Bollandists 
heard this story from the curates and 
peasants of Carinthia, but never found 
it in books. Some of the narrators also 
added that the woman who had accused 
the countess was turned iuto stone, with 
the cow she was milking, and that her 
stool and her pail of milk might bo 
seen there still. The messengers, how 
ever, not only never saw the stones 



ST. AGATHOCUA 



themselves, but never found any man 
who could assert that he had seen them. 
Bollandus, AA.8S. 

St. Agatha (0), grand - princess 
of Iiiissia, commemorated Feb. 7, with 
her daughters-in-law, SS. MAKY and 
CHKISTINA, massacred with the other 
inhabitants of Vladimir by the Mongol 
Tartars. Agatha was the wife of George 
Vsevolodovitch, grand-prince of Russia 
(1224-1238). When the Tartars were 
devastating Kussia in the dreadful winter 
of 1238, the grand-prince went to tho 
province of Yaroslav to raise troops 
and obtain help from his brothers and 
nephews. He left his sons Mstislaf 
and Vsevolod to hold the town of 
Vladimir. They had in their care their 
wives, Mary and Christina, their mother 
tho grand-princess Agatha, some chil 
dren, and other members of the family. 
As the Tartars marched through tho 
country they killed and destroyed, with 
brutal ferocity, "tho burning towns and 
rifled shrines proclaimed where they had 

d." Instead of living inhabitants 
coming and going, were corpses lying 
on the frozen ground, torn by wild 
beasts and birds of prey. At Moscow 
the Tartars butchered every man, woman, 
and child, except Vladimir, tho second 

if the grand-prince, and some youni^ 
monks and nuns, whom they carried off 
with their army. On Feb. 2, 12: IS 
they arrived before the town of Vladi 
mir, and asked whether the grand-prince- 
was at home. The Vladimirians, for 
all answer, sent a flight of arrows into 
their camp. The Mongols then sot 
Agatha s son, the young prince Vladimir, 
in front of their line, crying out, " Do 
you recognize your prince ? " Indeed, 
he was so altered by the grief and horror 
of his situation and the ill treat 
ment he had received, that they hardly 
knew him. After a few days of brav-- 
defence, it became evident that tho case 
was desperate. Tho princes, princesses, 
and nobles determined not to fall alivo 
into the hands of the barbarians. \ 
volod, his wife, and a number of tin; 
most illustrious nobles and citizens 
assemlilt 1 in tin; church of Our La ly. 
They begged Metrophancs, the bisinj&gt;, 
to give them tho monastic tonsure. This 



solemnity was performed in profound 
silence. They took leave of tho world 
and of life, but prayed Heaven to pre- 
s rvo tho existence, the glory, and tho 
cherished name of Kussia. On Feb. 7, 
the Sunday of the carnival, after Matins. 
the assault began. The Tartars rushed 
into the new city by its four gat* s. 
Mstislaf and Vsevolod withdrew with 
their guard into the old town called 
Petcherni, where they perished at tho 
hands of the invaders. Their mother, 
tho grand-princess Agatha, with her 
daughter, her brothers, her daughters- 
in-law, and her granddaughter, shut 
themselves up in the cathedral. The 
Mongols set it on fire. The bishop cried 
aloud, " Lord ! stretch out Thine in 
visible arms and receive Thy servants in 
peace." Then he gave his blessing to 
all present, devoting them to death. 
Some were suffocated in the smoke, some 
were burnt, some fell by the sword of 
the Tartars, who broke in at last, 
attracted by tho treasures they expected 
to find. The names of the three prin 
cesses, Agatha, Mary, and Christina, are 
given in tho ancient manuscript, Lives of 
the Saints, " Saints of Vladimir." Ka- 
ramsin, Histoirc de Itussie, iii. o44, :J47, 
4&lt; 2, etc. 

B. Agatha (7 ) of Gubbio, also called 
AGATETTA. loth or 14th century. Nun 
O.S.A. in the monastery of Santa Maria, 
called Paradise. Jacobilli, Sattti &lt;/&gt;// 
Uitbria* 

St. Agathpclia, Sept. 17, M. 1st 
century. Christian slave of Nicholas 
and Paulina, who were apostates from 
( hristianity. By another account she 
was the slavo of a heathen woman and 
the daughter of Nicholas and Paulina, 
who were Christians. Her mistress 
treated her with great cruelty for eight 
years, and tried every means to induce 
h r to renounce her religion; she need 
to send her barefooted in tho coldest 
weather to gather wood. When she was 
locked up without food, a nightingale 
fed her by bringing her fruit from the 
. At last her mistress came int&lt;&gt; 
tin- prison and killed her with a red-hot 
iron liar. &gt;h! is claimed as a Spaniard 
by Salazar, who says she suffered at 
Andiijsir in tho year i&gt;4 ; but it is more 



ST. AGATHOXIA 



likely that she lived and died in the 
East, as her story only comes to us 
through the Greek Church. H.M. 
Stilting in AA.SS. 

St. Agathonia (1), March :*o, M. 
AA.SS. 

St. Agathonia (2), April 1:5, M. 
AA.SS. 

St. Agathonica (1), April i: &gt;, M. 
251. Sister of the deacon Papylus, 
martyred under Decius ; after many tor 
tures he was burnt with Carpus, bishop 
of Thyatira, and many others. Aga 
thonica, seeing her brother in the fire, 
threw herself into the flames and died 
with him. Their Acts are quoted by 
Eusebius. R.M. Men. Basil, Oct. 13. 
Baillet. Guenebault, Die. Icon , says 
sister of Bishop Agathodorus ; M. with 
him and their servant in the 3rd century. 

St. Agathonica (2), Aug. in, M. at 
Carthage, with BASSA and PAULA. R.M. 

St. Agatia. ST. AGATHA is so called 
in the Ruthenian Calendar. 

St. Agatodia, Sept. 17. In the Bio- 
cjrafia Celesicisticci, Agatodia appears to 
be a clerical error for AGATHOCLIA. 

St. Agetrue or AGERTRUDIS, GER 
TRUDE of Nivelle. 

St. Agia (1), Sept. 1 (AGA, AIE, 
AroiA, AUSTREGILD). c. 609. Mother of 
St. Lupus, bishop of Sens. Wife of 
Betto, a lord of the court ; and sister of 
two holy bishops, Austrenus of Orleans 
and Aunarius of Auxerre. There are 
about 10 saints called Lupus, or Leu, or 
Loup. This one was born at Orleans. 
He was banished from his see by king 
Clothaire, through the covetousness of 
a minister to whom ho would not give 
bribes, and of an abbot who wanted to 
take his bishopric. The king afterwards 
recalled St. Lupus, kneeled at his feet to 
ask his forgiveness, and treated him with 
the greatest honour. Lupus died at 
Sens in G23. AA.SS. Bailiet. Butler. 

St. Agia (2), AYA. 

St. Aglae (1), May 14 or 8. Peni 
tent, c. 317. A woman of great wealth, 
so fond of the luxuries and the pomps 
and vanities of the world as to give 
public games to the people at her own 
expense. She lived at Komc apparently 
about the beginning of the 4th cen 
tury, but she is supposed to have been a 



foreigner. She led a sinful life with 
Boniface the manager of her aftairs, a 
drunken and dissipated man, who, though 
stained with many vices, had three good 
qualities pity for the unfortunate, liber 
ality to the poor, and hospitality towards 
strangers. After many years it pleased 
God to touch the heart of Aglae with 
compunction, and she said to Boniface, 
" We arc living in sinful pleasure with 
out reflecting that we shall have at last 
to give an account to God of all that we 
do in this life ; I have heard some of the 
Christians say that those who honour 
Saints and Martyrs who fight for Jesus 
Christ shall be made partakers of their 
glory in the other life. I hear that a 
great many Christians are tortured and 
put to death now in the East for Christ s 
sake. Go there, and bring back some 
relics of these holy martyrs, that we may 
build oratories to them here and honour 
their memory that so we may escape the 
punishment of our vices and be saved 
with them." This was probably in 307 
or 300, under Galerius Maximiauus, who 
continued, in the East, to persecute the 
Church which had already had peace in 
the West since the abdication of Dio 
cletian, 305. Boniface obeyed her, and 
as he took leave of hei , he said he would 
bring back the bodies of some martyrs 
if he could find any, and added, * s But 
what if my body should be brought back 
to you as that of a martyr, would you 
honour it as such ? " Aglae rebuked 
him for what she considered an untimely 
jest, and said that he must reform his 
life, and consider that he was going to 
seek for holy relics. Boniface was so 
impressed by the earnestness of his 
mistress that he fasted from wine and 
meat during the whole of his journey, 
and prayed to God for grace to repent 
and reform. He arrived in due time at 
Tarsus in Cilicia. Leaving his servants 
and horses at the inn, he went at once 
to make inquiries about the Christians, 
and see what was going on with regard 
to them. He was soon satisfied on this 
point, for he saw 2o of them under 
going different forms of torture in the 
Forum; one of them was hung up by 
the feet over a fire. The spectators, 
instead of beiiig imbued with a horror 



ST. ACNKS 



25 



of Christianity, wcro struck with admi 
ration at the constancy of the martyrs. 
Boniface, having found what ho came to 
seek, boldly embraced these men con 
demned as malefactors and undergoing 
the sentence of the law, and openly en 
treated them to pray for him, that he 
might have a share in their merits. He 
t orted them by saying that their 
sufferings would soon be over, and their 
recompense would bo eternal. The 
judge, SimpliciuB, governor of Cilicia, 
considered the conduct of Boniface as an 
insult to himself and his gods, and had 
him arrested on tho spot. Boniface, 
thinking this was his last opportunity 
of speaking, prayed to Christ, and cried 
out to the martyrs to pray for him, 
which they all did so loudly that a 
tumult arose among the people, which 
caused the judge to fear for his safety ; 
he therefore sent Boniface to prison till 
the disturbance was over. Next day, 
finding him firm in his adherence to the 
Christians and their God, he condemned 
him to be beheaded at once. Thus was 
Boniface rewarded for his kindness to 
the martyrs by sharing their sufferings 
and triumph. Meantime, his servants 
began to be uneasy at his continued 
absence, and, knowing his habits, they 
sought him in wine-shops and taverns, 
expecting to find him drunk in bad 
company. It happened that one of the 
persons of whom they inquired was the 
gaoler s brother. When they described 
their master as a stout, square-built, 
fair man, with curly hair, and wearing a 
scarlet mantle, he told them that must 
be the man who had just been beheaded 
on account of his profession of Chris 
tianity. He then took them to the place 
of execution, where, much to their sur 
prise, they recognised the body of tin: 
martyr. They ransomed it for 500 
golden pence, embalmed it, and brought 
it buck t&lt;&gt; Homo. Aglao went to meet 
her dead friend a milo out of Home, 
on tho Via Latina, where, thanking 
God for His mercy, sho built a tomb 
to his memory, and, some years after 
wards, a chapel. According to Humans 
Unman JIiiiiHinrnln, the church was on 
the Aveiitine, near the house of Aquihi 
and Priscilla. The dedication of St. 



Boniface *vas afterwards changed to that 
of the young pilgrim. St. Alexius. Aglae 
renounced the world, liberated her sluv- g, 
LMVO her goods to tho poor, and spent 
the remaining KJ years of her life 
in devotion and penance, accompanied 
only by two or three women who had 
been her attendants, and who remained 
Asith her after her conversion, and 
adopted her altered way of living. She 
died in peace, and was buried beside 
St. Boniface. The day of her death is 
supposed to bo May 8, but she is 
generally honoured with St. Boniface on 
the 14th. Her day in the Greek Church 
is Dec. 19. 

Baillet gives the story from the Acts 
of St. Boniface, which he says are ancient 
and founded on fact, but not authentic. 
Henschenius, in a note, Feb. 25, says it 
is possible Aglae lived and died, not at 
Home, but at Tarsus in Cilicia. 

B, Aglae (2), or AGLAA, Aug. 25, 
Dec. 19, in the Greek Calendar. Nurse 
of St. Patricia (4). Nutrix, perhaps, 
means a relation or governess who 
brought her up. (See ST. AMMIA.) St. 
Aglay built a church and convent at tho 
tomb of St. Patricia, at Naples ; there 
many holy women took tho veil, and 
many miraculous cures were wrought. 
AA.SS. in tho Life of St. Patricia. 

St. Agliberte, or AILBEBT, Aug. 11. 
Second abbess of Jouarre. 

St. Agna fl), May 18 (/EGINA, 
EGEXA ), M. at Constantinople. AA.SS. 

St. Agna ( 2 ), July 5, in tho Graco- 
Slavonic Calendar, is supposed to mean 
AN\A or AGNES. 

St. Agne, Jan. 10. A mother, and 
perhaps a martyr. Her name is in a 
table of 48 Russian saints, given in 
the introduction to vol. i. of Bollandi 
A&lt;-t&lt;t SS. Maii. Her name is one of 
2&lt;&gt;, marked with an asterisk to denote 
that it is not known whether they 
wcro Russian, or only adopted into the 
calendar by tho Russians. She may bo 
ST. AGNES, V. M., Latin Church, Jan. 21, 
(iivek Church, July 5; or she may bo 
a native saint. She may bo actually a 
mother, or only so called, in accordance 
with tho Russian custom, as a mark of 
ivspect and atVection. 

St. Agnes &lt; 1 ), July 5, of Reggio, in 



26 



ST. AGNES 



Calabria. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd century. 
Three women, Agnes, PEKPETUA, and 
FELICITAS are commemorated as fellow- 
martyrs with the bishops, Stephen and 
Suera, who wcro put to death for their 
religion at Rhcgium, in Calabria, now 
( according to Graesse) Sta. Agata delle 
Galline. Janning, the Bollandist, gives 
their story, but does not seem to think 
it authentic. AA.SS. 

St. Agnes (2), Jan. 21, 28, July 5 
( Spanish, INEZ or YNEZ ; in some Greek 
calendars, HAGNE), V. M. 302, 303, or 
304. One of the four great patronesses 
of the Western Church. Joint patron 
with the VIRGIN MARY and ST. THECLA, 
of innocence and purity ; special patron 
of meekness. In art, her attribute is a 
lamb, the emblem of meekness, and 
typical of her Divine Master. She is 
sometimes represented attended by angels, 
who cover her with her own hair ; some 
times standing in or near flames ; in 
common with all martyrs, she holds a 
palm ; and often, in common with many, 
a sword ; sometimes she wears a crown. 

The son of Sempronius, prefect of 
Rome, observed a girl of 12 or 13 
passing daily on her way to and 
from school, and was struck with her 
beauty and innocent childlike appear 
ance. Having ascertained her name and 
parentage, he tried to win her favour and 
that of her family by gifts and other 
attentions, all of which were declined. 
The young man fell ill, and in time con 
fessed to his anxious father that he was 
dying for love of a little Christian maiden 
who would have nothing to say to him. 
The prefect did not doubt that Agnes 
parents, though rich, would be glad to 
secure for her so advantageous & parti as 
his son. Ho endeavoured to arrange the 
matter, but with no better success. He 
found, moreover, that the young lady 
was vowed, from childhood, to a single 
life, in honour and for love of her Lord, 
Jesus Christ, the God of the Christians. 
He therefore ordered that she should 
either renounce her resolution and marry 
his son, or join the sacred virgins who 
served the goddess Vesta. Agnes replied 
that she would never serve or acknow 
ledge any god or goddess but Jesus 
( hrist. Diocletian had already published 



his famous edict for the suppression of 
Christianity, which led to the tenth, the 
last and greatest, general persecution of 
the Church. Sempronius took advantage 
of the law to gain his own ends or satisfy 
his vengeance. Agnes like many others 
whom the Church honours as martyrs, 
many more whose names are known only 
to God, some who were miraculously 
protected from insult, and some, as inno 
cent in heart and will, whom God suffered 
to pass through the lowest depths of 
infamy was condemned to degradation. 
She was deprived of her garments, but 
was clothed with a miraculous light, so 
that every one who attempted to look at 
her was struck blind. Her hair fell all 
round her like a veil. In the place of 
infamy to which she was taken she prayed 
for Divine protection, and was provided 
with a white robe which seemed to be 
brought to her from heaven. Her good- 
for-nothing lover, bent on continuing 
his suit, approached her with words of 
insult and with wicked intent, but fell 
down dead, and was only restored when 
the young martyr, at the entreaty of his 
parents, prayed for his return to life. 
She was then accused of sorcery and 
condemned to be burnt. A prayer iu 
a service-book of the Roman Catholic 
Church speaks of " the Blessed Agnes 
standing in the middle of the flames 
like a ship in the midst of the sea, 
praying and stretching out her hands 
to God." As she remained unhurt amid 
the flames till they went out, she was 
beheaded. 

Such is the legend of the Western 
Church ; that of the East says that, as 
by her instructions she converted a 
great many wicked women, she was put 
to torture, and then condemned to 
the station held by her disciples before 
their conversion. She was miraculously 
defended from evil, and finally burnt as 
a sorceress. 

She was the first martyr of any 
celebrity in the West, as St. George was 
the first in the East, in this great tenth 
persecution. Her name is in the Canon 
of the Mass. She ranks next to the 
VIUGI.V MAIIY among women honoured 
as saints, and is the chief of virgin 
martyrs in the Latin Church. She is 



ST. AGXES 



one of tho few saints distinguished in 
the offices of tho ancient Church by the 
title " Virgin," which was then reserved 
almost exclusively for tho Blessed Virgin 
Mary, though in later times it was be 
stowed on every nun or young girl with 
any claim to sanctity, and sometimes even 
on matrons who became nuns late in life. 
St. Augustine says that tho name 
"Agnes" means "chastity" in Greek, 
and " a lamb " in Latin ; it is not certain 
whether she bore this name in her life, 
or whether it was given to her after 
wards. Her Acts are not older than the 
7th century ; but she was honoured 
throughout tho ( hristian world in tho 
same century in which her martyrdom 
occurred. She is mentioned by St. 
Jerome, who says that in his time her 
praisi- was heard in all languages; by 
St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and other 
writers of the 4th and the beginning of 
the 5th centuries. Numbers of Christians 
used to resort to her grave to pray, 
especially on the anniversary of her 
martyrdom. ST. EMERENTIANA, who is 
supposed to have been her foster-sister, 
was stoned to death while praying at 
the tomb of Agnes, which was near tho 
Via Xomentana. The Christians were 
sometimes joined by heathens, from 
motives of curiosity, veneration, or super 
stition ; among them ST. CONSTANTLY, 
daughter of tho Emperor Constantino, 
pri vioiis to her conversion, commended 
herself to the mercy of St. Agnes, for 
tho cure of a distressing and disfiguring 
disease. As she immediately recovered, 
she became a Christian, and persuaded 
her father to build a church over tho 
grave of the martyr. There she and 
several other women devoted themselves 
to a religious life. This church was re 
paired by Pope Honorius in tho 7th 
century, and gives titlo to a cardinal. 
In it yearly, on her festival, two lambs 
an- blessed at high Mass ; they are then 
taken to the Tope to bo blessed again, 
afterwards they are consigned to certain 
nuns who make pallimns of their wool ; 
these are blessed by tho Pope, who pn- 
ts them to archbishops. Another 
chun-h was biiilt by Innocent IX. 
iio site of her death, and dedicated 
t&lt;&gt; (Jod in her nam&gt; . HIT martyrdom 



is commemorated on Jan. 21, and her 
appearance in glory to her relations and 
fellow-Christians on the 28th. Inno 
cent III. made St. Agnes the first patron 
of tho new Order of the Most Holy 
Trinity for the Redemption of Captives. 
ST. ELISABETH of Schouau, 12th century, 
known by her visions and revelations, 
asserted that St. Agnes was little and 
plump, and had red cheeks and curly 
hair. It.M. \Eol\tmduB, A A. SS. Butler. 
Baillet. Flos Sanctorum. Golden Legend. 
Leyendario delle Santissime VeryinL 
Nenology of the Emperor Basil. Cahicr. 
Husenbeth. Mrs. Jameson. 

St. Agnes (3), Oct. 18, V. M. with 
Victor or VICTORIA, and BASSA, at Ostia 
or Xicomcdia. Supposed to be a njistako 
for the great ST. AGNES, V. M. at Rome. 
AA.SS. 

St. Agnes (4), Aug. 28, V. M. 383. 
A native of Britain, of royal or noblo 
birth. One of the companions of ST. 
URSULA, and martyred with her at 
Cologne. Tho French Martyroloijy says 
she was martyred in England, whence 
her relics were translated to Cologne. 
Both accounts are probably fabulous,, 
the story of St. Ursula being enveloped 
in mystery and improbability, and the 
story of tho 1 1 ,000 martyred virgins 
offering a field for unlimited specula 
tion and romance. Tho only authority 
on which the history of St. Agnes of 
Britain rests is that of the man to whom 
she appeared and revealed it. Watson, 
English Martyrology* 

St. Agnes &lt; .*&gt; ). There is a dedica 
tion in Cornwall always written St. Agues 
:u nl always pronounced St. Anne. Per 
haps to this saint belongs tho legend in 
Dr. Cobham Brewer s Header s Handbook. 
There are, in the rocks on tho coast, 
holes communicating with tho sea. A 
sort of ogre, or evil spirit, spoken of in 
that region as a " Wrath," was in love 
with St. Agnes. She said if ho could 
fill a certain one of thcso holes with his 
blood, she might regard him with favour. 
He began at once to bleed himself, and 
tho saint encouraged him until he w:is 
dying of exhaustion, and then pushed 
him over tho cliff. 

St. Agnes (0), May 13. V. 7th cen 
tury. Abbess at Poitiers. Patron of 



28 



B. AGNES 



the Trinitarians, and against perils at 
sea. Brought up by ST. RADEGUND, 
queen of France, who founded the abbey 
of Ste. Croix, at Poitiers, and gave it 
the rule of ST. CESARIA ; she appointed 
Agnes first abbess of her convent, and 
went with her to Aries to be instructed 
in the rule. Radegund died a nun in 
the same convent in 687, leaving to it a 
large endowment by a will, in which 
Agnes is mentioned. The existence of 
these two saints within their " narrowing 
nunnery walls" was enlivened by the 
friendship and sympathy of a poet whose 
works have come down to us. Venantius 
Fortunatus, the last Latin poet of Gaul, 
was for many years an inmate of the 
monastery of Ste. Croix. After visiting 
the kings and bishops of F"rance, he 
came to pay his respects to the widowed 
queen Radegund, stepmother of the 
kings, and was so charmed with the 
amiable and intellectual society and 
the superior cultivation of the sisterhood, 
that he stayed there as chaplain and 
almoner till the death of St. Radegund. 
The queen often sent him on important 
missions to various personages, and thus 
the community were kept informed and 
interested concerning what was going on 
in other places. He managed the ex 
ternal business of the nuns, and took 
part in their occupations. They read 
and transcribed books, they acted plays, 
they received visitors, they had little 
feasts on birthdays. Fortunatus made 
himself agreeable to them as he had 
done to saintly bishops and half-civilized 
kings ; and he found their house an 
oasis of peace and refinement in a desert 
of barbarism. His writings describe 
the convent life and the food, in which 
he seems to have been a connoisseur. 
He takes Christ to witness that his 
affection for Agnes was that of a brother. 
Among his poems are two hymns adopted 
by the Church Panqv, lingua and 
Vexilla Regis. He wrote a Life of St. 
ll tilnjmul, which, as well as another by 
one of her nuns, is preserved by the 
Bollandists. He was born in Italy 
about 53o, and died bishop of Poitiers 
early in the 7th century. SS. Radegund 
and Agnes had a great deal of trouble 
with two very naughty princesses, 



Chrodielde and Basiue (xee AUDOVERA), 
who were placed under their care, and 
who, after the death of these first rulers 
of Ste. Croix, rebelled against Ludovcra, 
the next abbess, one of them demand 
ing that office as a king s daughter, 
though utterly unqualified for the post. 
A great scandal ensued ; bishops and 
kings had to interfere before the re 
fractory ladies were removed, to the 
great relief of Ludovera and the good 
nuns. AA.SS. Boll., Aug. 13. St. Rade 
gund is in all the collections, and St. 
Agnes is always mentioned in her story. 
Nouvelle Biographic Univerxelle, " For- 
natus." Diet, of Christian B KHJ., " Rha- 
degundis " and " Fortunatus." Thierry, 
Becits Merovingiens. 

B. Agnes (7), Dec. 23. Called 
AGNES AUGUSTA and AGNES of Aquitaiue 
or of Poitiers, j- 1077. O.S.B. Daugh 
ter of William, duke of Aquitaiue. 
Second wife of Henry III. (the Black), 
king of Germany, Emperor. Mother of 
Henry IV. Grandmother of B. AGNES, 
marchioness of Austria. The dukes of 
Aquitaine were the most powerful vas 
sals of the crown of France, and very 
rich. An alliance with them was as 
advantageous as one with the house of 
Capet ; and there was more refinement 
and culture at their court than at that 
of the king. Agnes s father was dis 
tinguished among the princes of his 
time, no less by his virtues and intel 
lectual tastes and accomplishments, than 
for his territorial wealth and other ad 
vantages. He had been dead some years 
when, in 1043, Agues married Henry, 
king of Germany. When first the pro 
ject of Henry s marriage was known in 
Germany, many good people objected, 
fearing that a queen from France, and 
from a court where modern fashions 
prevailed, would be less circumspect and 
dignified than the first lady in Germany 
ought to be ; and would introduce ex 
travagant and unseemly customs and 
modes of dress ; but this fear soon 
proved groundless : nothing could bo 
more modest, amiable, sincerely con 
scientious, and religious, than the cha 
racter and behaviour of the young queen. 
She was crowned at Maintz, and her 
first home in Germany was Ingelheim. 



B. AGXES 



20 



On Christmas Day, 10-tn, Henry and 
Agnes were crowned Emperor and Em 
press, by Clement II., in St. Peter s 
Church at Home. 

Both as a man and as a king Henry 
III. was of " the salt of the earth." Ho 
ruled with a strong hand, and under his 
e way the empire attained its highest 
greatness. In 1048, Leo IX. became 
Pope, and in him Henry found a hearty 
fellow-worker in the iield of reform. 
Had Leo and Henry lived for ever, or 
had they even reigned . &gt;&lt; years, what 
might not such a Pope and such an Em 
peror have effected ! They did accomplish 
and reform a great deal in the nearly 
live years of their contemporary reigns. 

One of the dangers to the peace of 
Europe was the power of the Countess 
I x atrico of Tuscany, whoso second hus 
band, the duke of Lorraine, was a some 
what troublesome vassal of the empire, 
was partly to set a balance to tho 
wcr of Beatrice, that Henry sought a 
;w alliance with another powerful 
)man, B. ADELAIDE of Susa. She was 
y connected with the imperial 
use by her first marriage, and in 1055 
enry betrothed his son Henry, aged 
e, to Bertha, her daughter by her third 
sband, Odo, margravo of Turin and 
unt of Savoy. The next year, Victor 
.., another reforming Pope, came to pay 
a visit to tho Emperor at Goslar, and 
went with him to Bodfeld, his hunting- 
castle in tho Hartz. There, to the grief 
of the world, Henry, not yet in his 4&lt;th 
year, left all his good deeds and great 
projects unfulfilled and unfinished : he 
diid Get. ."&gt;, ln;,t;, and was buried at 
Speier. beside his father and mother. 
J "pe Victor took the child Henry im 
mediately to Aachen f Aix-la-Chapelle), 
and crowned him. Agnes was regent. 
Probably no woman could have taken 
linn hold of the reins laid down by 
II :iry III. The widow&lt; d empress was 
quite unlit for the task; she had neither 
the energy nor the ability to rule a great 
empire consisting of separate states and 
powerful vassals, always rivals to each 
other and sometimes to tho supreme 
power. She had not the discernment to 
choose her friends and ministers wisely; 
she listened now to one adviser and now 



to another. She had no ambition for 
herself, and only longed to escape from 
the cares and pomps of tho world and 
retire to a monastery. She tried to 
bring up her son properly, but it was 
the interest of some unprincipled per 
sons to deprave his tastes and frustrate 
her good intentions towards him, as well 
as to stultify her efforts for the govern 
ment of the country. Anno, archbishop 
of Cologne, was one of the most power 
ful and unscrupulous of the many 
troublesome magnates who strove for 
the chief power in the empire ; he deter 
mined to further his own importance and 
influence by obtaining the custody of 
the young king. He went to pay his 
respects to the empress and her son 
at a place now called Kaiserswertli 
on the Pthiue, where they were staying 
with a small retinue. He was hospit 
ably welcomed and entertained, and 
spared no effort to make himself agree 
able to tho young king; he told him 
ho had come down the river in his new 
barge, which was beautifully fitted up 
for a pleasure trip, and suggested that 
Henry should come and see it where it 
lay below the palace. The boy gladly 
went. He was no sooner on board than 
the rowers, who had been well instructed 
in the plot, struck tho water with their 
oars and pulled with all their strength 
and speed up tho stream. Henry was 
dismayed and angry. He threw himself 
into tho river, but one of tho bishop s 
men jumped into the water and rescued 
him at the risk of his own life. Tho 
people on shore were very indignant 
at Anno s treachery. Tho empress 
wept and wrung her hands, but did not 
know what to do, and after a time ac 
quiesced in tho state of things. Anno 
shamefully neglected the education of 
tho boy, furnished him with frivolous 
and debasing amusements, allowed his 
abilities to run to waste, and suffered 
him to acquire habits of self-indulgence,, 
and to give way to bursts of fury. In 
1065, when Henry was l.~&gt;, the ceremony 
of girding him with a sword was held 
at Worms. That sword he would have 
used for the first time to kill his detested 
guardian, had not his mother restrained 
him. Some other incidents of his life 



30 



B. AGNES 



are told in the account of his mother-in- 
law, B. ADELAIDE of Susa. 

It was probably between the years 
1065 and 106i&gt; that Agnes left Germany, 
and took the veil without vows at Fru- 
&lt;lollc or Fructuaria, a Benedictine mon 
astery near Turin. From there she 
went to Rome, and lived at the church 
of ST. PETKONILLA. She made a general 
confession to St. Peter Damiani, and 
had him thenceforth for her spiritual 
adviser. She had n great regard for 
Pope Gregory VII., an esteem which he 
reciprocated, but, much to her grief, her 
son was constantly in opposition to him. 
In 1074 the Pope had a plan to go in 
person and bring the Eastern Church 
into his own fold. He proposed that 
the Empress Agnes and the Countess 
Matilda should accompany him, as pil 
grims, on this pious expedition, saying 
he would gladly lay down his life for 
Christ with these holy women by his 
side, assured of meeting them again in 
eternal bliss. Agnes made many at 
tempts to effect a reconciliation between 
her son and the Pope, but all her efforts 
were futile, and she was present at a 
council in the Lateran at Rome, Feb. 
21, 1070, in which Gregory pronounced 
the ban of the Church against Henry, 
and loosed his subjects from their alle 
giance to him. This led to his humili 
ating expedition to Canossa in January, 
1077. (See ADELAIDE of Susa.) Towards 
the end of that year Agnes died at 
Rome. An old Italian sermon says that 
St. Agnes Augusta never visited any 
church except in a dress of plain linen 
and common serge. Stephens, Hilde- 
brand. Giesebrecht, Dcutscldunds Ki- 
serzcii. Wion, Lignum Vitce, who calls 
her " Saint." Lechner, M&lt;irf. &lt;l&lt; * Ben. 
Or den*. 

B. Agnes (8), Feb. 11, V. t n OO. 
Abbess of Bagnarea (Balnei), in Italy. 
Of the order of Camaldoli, a native of 
Sarsina, " the dignity of whose merits," 
Bucelinus says, " is shown to us by God 
unto this day, for on her festival the 
waters of the baths emit an unusual 
light and increase wonderfully in quan 
tity." She rests in the church at Castri 
Pereti Parva, where she has an altar. 
Bucelinus. Wion. 



B. Agnes (9), Nov. 1 ,"&gt;, Marchioness 
of Austria. Founder of Klosterneuburg. 
Daughter of Henry IV., emperor of Ger 
many. Granddaughter of B. AGNES, em 
press. Sister of Henry V. Married, first, 
Frederic, duke of Swabia, by whom she 
was the mother of Conrad, emperor, and 
of Frederick, father of Frederick Barba- 
rossa; secondly, in HOC, she married 
Leopold III., sixth marquis of Austria, 
saint and confessor, surnamed the Pious, 
who succeeded his father in 1006. Of 
this marriage there were IS children, 
seven of whom died in infancy, and 
all the rest were distinguished by great 
deeds and virtuous lives. Leopold, 
the second son, succeeded his father as 
marquis of Austria, and was duke of 
Bavaria. Otho, the fifth son, abbot of 
Morimond and bishop of Frisingen, 
wrote a famous chronicle from the begin 
ning of the world, besides other books. 

Agnes took part in all her husband s 
good works. They read the Holy Scrip 
tures together, and used to rise at 
midnight to perform the devotions pre 
scribed by the Church. They desired 
to watch continually at the foot of the 
altar, but being obliged by their station 
to attend to other duties, they determined 
to build a church and monastery at 
Klosterneuburg, a few miles from Vienna, 
where canons should attend day and 
night to this duty in their stead. While 
they were in doubt where to build the 
monastery, they were riding along on a 
perfectly still day, when a sudden gust 
of wind flew away with a little flame- 
coloured veil that Agnes was wearing ; 
nine years afterwards Leopold found it 
in perfect preservation on an elder bush. 
They took this as an indication of the 
spot on which their monastery should 
be built. (Perz., 1. 616.) They also 
founded the Cistercian monastery of the 
Holy Cross near Kalnpcrg, where they 
lived, 1 2 miles from Vienna. 

After a glorious and happy reign of 
4&lt;&gt; years, Leopold died Nov. 15, 1 ! !&lt;&gt;, 
and was buried in his monastery of 
Klosterneuburg. This is the oldest 
and richest chapter (Chorlierreustift) in 
Austria ; it owns a great part of the 
country around Vienna. Gynecseum. 
Butler, Life of St. Leopold. 



ST. AGNES 



i 1 



B. Agnes d"), March ::i, of Braiuc, 
f 114:. or 114! . Wife of Andrew, 
count of Baudemont, lord of IJraine, and 
seneschal of Champagne. They were so 
pious and charitable that their house 
was like a hospice. Agnes employed 
her servants to servo the poor, and, when 
they required rest, performed the work 
herself. With the consent of her husband 
and children, she gave estates and rents 
to certain churches and monasteries of 
the Premonstratensiaus. She took the 
veil in that order in 11, W. Count 
Andrew became a monk of the Order of 
Clairvaux, and is mentioned in a letter 
of St. I .rrnard (No. 22(3) to King Louis 
VII. of Franco. 

It is a disputed point whether the 
monastery of St. Evodo (Euodius), at 
1 .mine, was founded by B. Agnes or 
by her granddaughter Agnes, who was 
married to Kobert, count of Dreux, 
brother of Louis VII. Guy, son of the 
elder and father of the younger Agnes, 
became a lay-brother there, and is 
counted among the Beati of the Pre- 
monstratensian Order. Le Paige, Bill. 
Prsem. Ord., lib. i. 340, and lib. ii. 480. 
Boll., A A. SS. She is called " Saint " 
by some writers, "Blessed" by others; 
but by Saussaye, Mart. Gall., and 
Gelenius, only "Venerable" and 
"Pious." 

B. Agnes (11), March 28. Middle of 
12th century. Of Chatillon. Called by 
Bucelinus Agnes dc Satillon, and by 
Guerin Agnes du Catillon. Cistercian 
nun at Beau Pn , near Tournay in Bel 
gium, where she was sub-prioress, and 
afterwards mistress of the novices. Boll., 
.Ll.-S .S . l[Mirii|ucz, Lilia Cistcrcii. 
Bncelinus, Nv,i. Jlen. 

St. Agnes i 12 i, Sept. 1. Middle of 
12th century. Of Venosa, or Vonusia. 
Abbess. Penitent. 

St. William of Monte Vergino was a 
monk of the Order of St. Benedict, and 
founder of the Hermits of Monte Y&lt; r- 
gin&lt;;, and of several houses of that order. 
When liogor, the young Norman king 
of Sicily, came into Apulia, which was 
part of his dominions, William preached 
before him and his courtiers; the king 
i (1 attentively, but entertained some 
doubts of the sincerity of the man who 



set up a higher standard of virtue than 
others; but Count George, the king s 
admiral, was enchanted with William, 
and regarded him as a holy prophet. 
When the preacher had taken leave of 
the king and his friends, and returned 
to his lodging, a wicked woman uaniol 
Agnes came to them, and said she would 
show them what a hypocrite William 
was. George was vexed, but the king 
laughed, and promised her an immense 
reward if she could seduce William. 
She wont to the inn where he was stay 
ing, and talked to him, and then came 
and told the king she had not had any 
difficulty in persuading him to make an 
assignation for the same night, and that 
he had even made her promise to sleep 
in the very bed that he would, in the 
mean time, prepare for himself. George 
boldly said ho believed the woman was 
telling a lie. She laughed and said he 
should soon see that it was true. Wagers 
were made on both sides, and it was 
arranged that some of the courtiers 
should be concealed in the room and 
should hear all that happened. William 
got his companions to collect quantities 
of wood and make a huge fire. At the 
appointed hour Agnes arrived, beauti 
fully dressed and perfumed ; he met her 
at the door, and she said, " Where is yoiu- 
room, that I may be alono with you ? " 
Ho answered, "In the name of God,. I 
will show you my room and my bed." 
Soon the woman, fearing she was making 
no impression upon him, and knowing 
that her reward depended on her com 
plete success, said, " I think you forget 
what I have come here for." It was a 
cold night, and there was a large fire 
on the hearth. William raked all the 
burning wood out of the fire-place into 
tbr middle of the floor, and carefully 
arranged it so as to form a broad layer 
of tire. On this he lay down, and 
beckoning to his temptress, he said, 
11 &lt; ome, here is your place, you engaged 
to lie down beside mo; there is room 
for you : hero is your place." She was 
frightened, so ho wont on to say, "You 
cannot bo afraid of a little lire ! This 
lire will soon be burnt out, but you are 
going straight to where the fire is never 
quenched. Perhaps you want to know 



32 



B. AGNES 



what burning feels like : como here and 
try a little of it." While his burning 
clothes and flesh proved his sincerity, 
he went on talking so earnestly and so 
persuasively, that Agnes was first ter 
rified at the judgments in store for her ; 
then, horrified at her evil life, she 
resolved to forsake it. She went and 
told the king what had happened, and 
that she wished now to be converted. 
Next morning the repentant courtiers 
confessed to him that they had been 
jealous of William s influence, and had 
set this snare for him. Soon afterwards, 
when William came again to preach to 
the court, Eoger and George ran to 
meet him, and knelt at his feet. William 
taught Agnes to pray for true penitence, 
and when, some years later (1128), he 
founded his great double monastery at 
Guleto (afterwards called St. William s), 
near Nuscum, in Apulia, she became a 
nun in it. She sold all that she had, and 
with the proceeds he built a nunnery at 
Venosa, and here Agnes seems to have 
eventually become abbess. When Wil 
liam felt the approach of death he gave 
his parting advice and blessing to the 
monks of Monte Ycrgine, and then to 
the nuns, and died in the house of the 
latter, in 1142. St. Agnes erected a 
marble tomb over him in her church. 
The story is told by Pinius the Bollan- 
dist, in the Life of St. William, pp. 113, 
128, 131, June 25. AA.SS. She is not 
there called a saint, but is so called in 
the Analc-cta Juris Pontificii, vol. iii. 
p. ,523. Her name is also in Ferrarius 
Calendar, Sept. 1. 

It has been conjectured that she is 
the same as the Benedictine abbess who 
died at Rome, but the date of the latter 
is considerably Later. 

B. Agnes (l 3), Feb. 2 1 , V. t ] 1 80 - 
Cistercian nun at Nuitz (Nonessium), 
in Germany. Her soul was seen by her 
twin sister, ST. HILDEGUND, carried to 
heo-ven by angels with celestial music. 
Henriquez, Lilia Cist. Monstier, Gyne- 
cseum. Boll., AA.SS. says she is not 
worshipped. 

B.Agnes (14), June 14 or 15, Y. 
Early in J . 5th century. Cistercian nun at 
Ramey, in Brabant. B. IDA OF NIVKI.LI: 
saw a place prepared in heaven for 



Agnes long before her death. Buce- 
linus. Henriquez. Monstier. 

B. Agnes (15), Jan. 21, April 5. 
i: 5th century. Of Liege. O.S.B. Nun 
of the Cistercian convent of Mont Cor- 
nillon, near Liege, under her younger 
sister, B. JULIANA. Boll., AA.SS. Hen 
riquez. Bucelinus. 

B. Agnes (10), Sept. 1. t 1241. 
O.S.B. Abbess. Illustrious for miracles. 
Died at Rome, and was buried in the 
church of ST. AGNES (2) there. This 
is perhaps the same as ST. AGNES (12), 
abbess of Venosa ; if so, there is a mis 
take of a century in the date. Pinius, 
the Bollandist, thinks they are not the 
same, but throws no light on this one. 
AA.SS. Wion, Lignum Vitsc. 

St. Agnes (17) of Assisi, Nov. 10. 
f 1253. When her sister, ST. CLARA, had 
been placed, by St. Francis, in the Bene 
dictine convent of St. Angelo de Panso, 
near Assisi, Agnes, then about 14, who 
was the object of her strongest human 
affection, and whose company in her 
retreat she asked of God, went to her 
and said she would stay with her, and 
follow her example and advice. Their 
relatives were very angry, and twelve of 
them came to take Agnes away by force. 
She appealed to her sister not to allow 
her to be carried off. Clara prayed that 
this violence might be prevented, and 
when they had gone a little way down the 
hill on which the convent stood, the little 
Agnes became so heavy that the twelve 
persons who were conducting her were 
unable to lift her across a narrow brook,, 
although they called some labourers to 
their assistance. Her uncle Monaldi, 
who was of the party, was so enraged 
that ho drew his sword, and would have 
stabbed her, but his hand became power 
less, and he could neither strike with 
the weapon nor put it back into the 
scabbard. Clara now appeared amongst 
them, and was allowed to take her sister 
back to the convent: this was in 1212. 
Very soon afterwards they both removed 
thence to the church of St. Damian, the 
third of those repaired by St. Francis. 
It became the first great convent of 
Franciscan or Clarissan nuns. The fol 
lowing year they had several disciples, 
of whom the first were BB. PACIFIC A, 



ST. ACiXKS 



33 



AM ATA, niece of CLARA, CHRISTINA (10), 
FRANCES (3 &gt;, BBNVKNI PA, and A&lt; 

r,i:i;\Ai;i&gt;i. In 1221 St. Francis appointed 
Agnes superior of the new community 
oi Bionticelli, at Florence. She returned 
to Assisi, was present at the death of 
St. Clara in 1253, and died the same 
year at the age of 55. Mrs. Oliphant, 
Fntiirig of Assisi. Helyot, Ordrcs Mon- 
astiques, vii. 25. Cron. Serafica, ii. 
A.R.M. Mart. Seraph. Ord. and Ord. 
ccinorum. Her life will bo given 
by the Bollandists when their calendar 
comes down to Nov. 1(1. 

B. Agnes (is) Peranda, Sept. 17, 
Feb. 2S. t ! - sl - Abbess of Barco- 
loua. O.S.F. Niece of ST. CLARA, sent 
by her to establish a Franciscan convent 
at Barcelona. Agnes was accompanied 
by her niece, B. CLAHA, who is com 
memorated with her. The convent was 
first inhabited about 1233; and Agnes 
presided over it for 4&lt;S years. Clara did 
not long survive her, and their bodies 
were solemnly translated by the bishop 
and six Benedictine abbots, Feb. 28. 
Monstier, Gynecsenin, does not say how 
long after their deaths this ceremony 
took place, but mentions that Alfonso 
Colona was the name of the bishop. Her 
life is in the Cronica Scrapliicd, vol. ii. 
Boll., AA.SS. Prxter., Sept. 1 7, Feb. 28. 

B. Agnes (n) Bernardi, March 3. 
Daughter of Opportulus Bernardi. A 
nun who spent her life in tho convent 
at Assisi, being placed there in her 
childhood, under ST. CLAHA (2). Gync- 

Ci n in. 

B. Agnes (2o) of Bohemia, June 7. 
Aunt of the more famous sainted prin 
cess of tho same name. Daughter of Wen- 
zel or WladislauK II., duke of Bohemia. 
Sister of Premysl Ottokar I., first king 
of Bohemia ( 1 L98-1230). Sister of ST. 
ANGELA. Abbess of St. George s at 
Prague, which she restored. Procured 
from the king, her brother, some privi 
leges for her monastery. Buried near 
B. MLADA, in tlu; ehapel of St. Anna, in 
tho monastery of St. George. She was 
a professed sister of tho Prcmonstru- 
teusiau Order, and is worshipped as a 
saint at Prague, but not throughout the 
Church. Bueelinus, Epitome rcnun l&gt; - 
kemicarum. Chaiiowski, 



, GcscJt id it nm P&gt;&lt;&gt;lnnen. AA.SS. 
I .oil. Prae/c/-., Juno 7. Wadding, in Lis 
A a nidcs. 

There seems to be an Agnes in every 
generation of tho royal and ducal house 
of Bohemia. Many of them were holy 
nuns, and some aro occasionally con 
founded with the two above named, to 
the multiplication of saints and of 
miracles. 

St. Agnes (21) of Bohemia, March (5. 
1205-1 2S2. Patron of Bohemia. Prin 
cess. Franciscan nun. Sometimes re 
presented with a basket of bread beside 
her ; sometimes with the Saviour taking 
a crown from her head and replacing it 
with a better one. Daughter of Premysl 
Ottokar L, first king of Bohemia (1198- 
123n) f by bis second wife Constance, 
sister of King Andrew of Hungary. 
Agnes was sister of B. ANNA, duchess of 
Breslau and half-sister of ST. ABDELA. 
First cousin of ST. ELIZABETH OP HUN- 
OAKY. Niece of the other holy Princess 
AGNES OF BOHEMIA. She was born Jan. 
20, 1205, in the Bysehrad or Wishegrad, 
at Prague. Before her birth her mother 
saw in a dream a coarse, ragged, grey 
gown under her gold- embroidered robes 
of state, and thought her dream meant 
that her child should one day wear such 
a garment. At three years old Agnes 
was betrothed to Henry Boleslaus, eldest 
son of the Duke of Silesia and the holy 
duchess ST. HEDWIG; she was sent to 
his country to be brought up in its 
language and manners. At the death 
of "her t fiftnc( j \ when she was only six, she 
was taken back to her parents, who 
entrusted her education to tho nuns of 
the Premonstratcnsian cloister of Doxan. 
After the lapse of a few years she was 
betrothed to Henry, son of tho Emperor 
Frederick II. ; but, by some strange 
fatality, tho name of the bride was 
omitted from the contract of betrothal, 
which seemed to some persons unlucky, 
to others a sign that a still higher 
alliance was tho destiny of tho young 
princess. She was now sent to Vienna 
to learn German and finish her educa 
tion tit tho court of her future husband. 
Here she spent more time in works of 
pi-ty and charity than in the pomps and 
gaieties of the court, fasting strictly on 



ST. AGXKS 



bread and wine during the whole of 
Advent, though her companions took 
eggs and milk, which were allowed by 
the clergy. She visited and relieved 
the poor, but escaped all praise of men 
by keeping these charitable expeditions 
secret, except from her governess and a 
few confidential friends and companions. 
Meantime her marriage was put off again 
and again, on one "ground or another, and 
finally broken off for political reasons, 
so she returned to Bohemia, and Henry 
married the Austrian duchess Margaret. 

After this Agnes was sought in mar 
riage by two great kings : one was 
Frederick II., the widowed father of her 
former fiance ; the other was Henry III. 
of England. The Emperor s ambassador 
dreamt that he saw Agues standing on 
clouds ; that she had on a small, dim 
crown ; and that this was taken from 
her head, and replaced by a larger and 
more brilliant one. This he interpreted 
to his own advantage, supposing that his 
sovereign would be preferred to the king 
of England. 

Premysl Ottokar died 1230, and was 
succeeded by his son, Agnes s brother, 
Wenzel III. From this time Agnes 
made it her custom to go out every 
morning before daybreak, disguised, and 
accompanied by a few of her most in 
timate companions, to visit several 
churches and honour holy relics, though 
her feet were bleeding from the excessive 
cold. After this she used to come home 
and warm herself, and attend Mass in 
the nearest church in her robes of state, 
and accompanied by her court ladies. 
Her bed was covered with splendid quilts, 
and furnished with soft pillows ; but it 
was all for show, she slept on a hard 
little pallet. 

King Wenzel favoured the suit of the 
Knipuror. Agnes, seeing that she would 
have to be his wife if she did not make 
an effort for her liberty, addressed her 
self to Pope Gregory IX., praying him 
to save her from the yoke of marriage, 
as she had betrothed herself to Christ 
the Lord. The holy Father took the 
pious princess under his protection, and 
wroto to the king of Bohemia on the 
subject. Wenzel loved his sister Agnes 
better than any other person or thing 



on earth, and admired and trusted her 
absolutely. When he received the Pope s 
letter sanctioning Agnes s vocation, he 
was vexed that she had written without 
consulting him, and had asked for pro 
tection from any one else. The Emperor 
was angry at first; afterwards he said 
that if he had seen an earthly king 
preferred before him, he would have 
taken stern vengeance ; but as Agues 
had chosen the Lord Christ instead of 
him, he would resign his claim. 

It was about 1233, when she was 
2S, that all projects of marriage were 
finally given up, and she saw herself 
free to follow her vocation. St. Francis 
of Assisi had been dead about seven 
years, and some members of the order 
had already come to Prague. ST. CLAUA, 
the first and greatest of Franciscan nuns, 
the personal friend of St. Francis, was 
still living, and was not many years 
older than Agnes. Agnes took Clara for 
her pattern. The two saintly ladies 
exchanged several letters, some of which 
are preserved ; and in 1 234, with the 
approval of the Pope, St. Clara sent five 
nuns of her order from Italy to Prague, 
and Agnes joined that order, with seven 
young Bohemian ladies .of the highest 
nobility. 

In presence of Wenzel III., the queen, 
seven bishops, and an immense number 
of persons of every rank and station, her 
hair was cut off, and she exchanged her 
jewelled robes for the rough grey habit 
of the poor Clares. After her example, 
numbers of women of the most ancient 
and honourable families in Bohemia, 
Moravia, and Silesia began to leave the 
world and build cloisters, in which to 
serve God and take care of their souls. 
Before her profession, the Pope s legate 
advised her to keep some part of her 
own property for any emergency that 
might arise ; but she decided to give 
one-third to the Church, one-third to 
the nuns, and one-third to the poor. 

The Pope commanded that Agnes 
should be abbess of her new convent; 
but she had so small an opinion of her 
self, that she placed every nun above 
her, felt herself unworthy to rule, and 
performed the most menial offices of the 
house. When she worked in the kitchen, 



ST. AGM.s 



she made little delicacies, and sent them 
to the sick in other convents ; she cleaned 
and mended the clothes of the lepers. 
Having no endowment, and living on 
alms, the community once ran short of 
food, and were threatened with starva 
tion ; but a basket of bread and fish 
suddenly appeared by Agnes s side, and 
was supposed to have been brought by 
angels. 

St. Clara heard with great joy of 
Agnes s progress in holiness, and wrote 
to encourage her. She sent her the 
Franciscan rule, drawn up by Innocent 
IV. (1 24:5-1 L\vr&gt;, and some little pre 
sents, such as her own drinking-cup, 
plate, veil, and girdle, which, with some 
of her letters, are still shown in the 
convent of St. Damian at Prague. 

In 1235 Pope Gregory IX., writing 
to Beatrice, queen of Castile, exhorts her 
to walk in the footsteps of the blessed 
ELIZABETH of Hungary, and holds np for 
her admiration Agnes, sister of the king 
of Bohemia. Two years afterwards 
Gregory ordered that, on account of the 
rigorous climate of Bohemia, the nnns 
should not be subjected to the extreme 
privations practised by their sisters in 
Italy. For instance, on Sundays and 
Thursdays they were to have two abun 
dant meals, of which eggs and milk were 
to form part; on the great festivals, i.e. 
Christmas. Easter, the feasts of the 
BLESSED VIIUJIN MAIIY and the Apostles, 
they were not to fast at all. They were 
to wear two garments and to use fur 
mantles, to wear shoes, and to fill their 
pillows and bed-sacks with hay and 
.. In 11 }:; Allies procured further 
mitigations of the asceticism of the rule, 
on account of its uusuitability to the 
re climate of her country. She did 
not spare herself, but she saw that it 
was impossible the rule should continue 
to exist in Bolicuii i without some modi 
fication. 

Won/el wrote and thanked the 1 ope 
for his kindness to his sister. This 
letter was read at uoral Council 

of Lyons, ll_M:&gt;, :ind is to be se&lt; u in the 
Hcgcsttt llhi ni ,-i &gt;f .!/&lt;-/, ,-, , , ]. ;L rs i. Op. 
Carol Erbcn., 1865. \\Yn/.-l had tin- 
test veneration for his sister, and ho 
and all Bohemia thanked her when she 



effected a reconciliation between him 
and his son, Premysl Ottokar II., who 
had rebelled against him. \Ven/el died 
in 1253, and was buried in the church of 
his sister s convent. Agnes lived nearly 
thirty years longer: she died in Il s2, 
having been a nun for forty-seven years. 
Just before her death, when she had 
received the last sacraments, Katherine, 
one of her nuns, who had a weakness 
in her feet, and had not been able to 
stand for ten years, entreated her com 
panions to bring her into the presence 
of the dying abbess, which they did, 
although Katherino was suffering great 
pain. She then besought Agues to cure 
her infirmity. Agnes, in her humility, 
did not believe that she had the grace of 
miracles ; but Katherino took her hand, 
and with it made the sign of the cross 
over her feet, and therewith was sud 
denly healed. Her body retained the 
flexibility, and her face the colour, of 
life ; and many miracles were wrought, 
one in favour of her sister-in-law, Queen 
Judith, so that many sick persons com 
mended themselves to the prayers of the 
departed saint, and wore her relics. 
Though never canonized, she has always 
been regarded in her own country as a 
saint, and as one of the patrons of 
Bohemia. She is considered the founder 
of the Franciscans in Bohemia, as well 
as of the Clarissans. She founded, 
with her brother the king, the monastery 
and hospital of the Holy Spirit, near the 
bridge at Prague, and gave it to the 
Crucifers of the Ked Star, to be the 
residence of the master of the order in 
that province. She also built the con 
vents of Tissnowa and Woslowana, in 
.Moravia, and that of St. Francis at 
Prague. She saw people s thoughts, and 
knew events which were happening at 
:i distance. When her nephew, Premysl 
Ottokar II., was killed in the battle of 
Laa, Aug. :_ ,, 127S, at the moment when 
he fell dead, she had ;i mental picture of 
the occurrence, and besought her sister 
nuns to pray with her for his soul. 
J.l.XS. Boll., March G. Chauowski, 
J"li, !&lt;! /&lt;/ ". Wadding. I alacky. &lt;&gt; - 

tchichi i "it Bohmen. Johftno Nep. 
Jeutsch, I&gt;n: St li j - A jii * ton Jasmin. 
Minuus, DC Helms Ijoliairicis. Cahier. 



B. AGXES 



Jentsch gives a German translation of 
four letters from St. Clara to Agnes of 
Bohemia. The first runs thus 

" Clara, the unworthy servant of Jesus 
Christ, and the sisters of the convent of 
St. Damian, send their holy greeting to 
the high-horn and honoured Agnes, 
daughter of the mighty and invincible 
king of Bohemia, and wish her, with 
all respect and ardour, the glory of 
eternal blessedness. 

"The knowledge of your virtues 
which has spread over most of the earth 
has come also to our ears in Italy, 
noble princess, and we rejoice over it 
much in the Lord, I and all those who 
do the will of God and try to serve our 
Lord Jesus Christ faithfully. It is, 
then, true that you have trodden under 
foot the most envied magnificence of the 
world, the greatest honours, and the 
throne of the most noble Emperor whom 
you might have married as befitted your 
royal station and his ; that you have 
embraced holy poverty with your whole 
soul, and desire the mortification of the 
flesh, and the humble position of our 
Saviour, whom you have chosen for ever 
for your inheritance. Trust ! He with 
His grace will always preserve the costly 
treasure of your purity. His power ex 
ceeds all other power. He is more lov 
able than aught else. His beauty puts 
all else that is beautiful in the shade. 
His love satisfies all desires and counter 
balances all burdens." And so on. 

Saint Clara, in a second letter to Agnes, 
says among other things 

" Thanks, thanks eternally to the 
Author of all good, the Spring of all 
perfection and of all heavenly gifts, for 
the many virtues with which He has 
adorned your soul. It is He who 
sanctifies you, and who has raised you 
to that state of perfection that His eyes 
can see in you nothing that can give 
Him pain. Happy are you, for this 
holiness will cause Him to bid you share 
with Him the eternal joy in Paradise 
where lie sits upon His star-built throne. 
What you now have, keep ; what you do, 
continue doing ; and never rest in the 
spiritual race which you have under 
taken. Try without ceasing to attain 
that perfectness to which the Spirit of 



God has called you, so that you may 
always fulfil your vows to the Almighty, 
and that you may obey more faithfully 
the commands of the Lord." 

St. Agnes (22) Blanbakin or 
Blannbekin. "fUJlo. A Beguine in 
Austria, who had extraordinary revela 
tions or delusions, net fit for publication. 
Potthast says her Life, is a very rare book, 
because her visions were not considered 
edifying, and it was forbidden to be read 
or sold. Mas Latrie, Trcsor. 

St. Agnes (23) of Montepulciano, 
April 28, Y. Abbess. O.S.F., O.S.A., 
O.S.D. 1208-1317. Represented (1) 
holding the Infant Christ in her arms, in 
remembrance of a legend that He gave- 
her a little cross from His neck ; (2) 
lifting up her foot after death for ST. 
CATHEKINE OF SIEXA to kiss ; (3) in an 
open tomb, with sick persons praying 
around. Daughter of Lorenzo de Segni. 
Born at the village of Graciano Vecchio, 
near the town of Montepulciauo, in 
Tuscany. Lorenzo and his wife would 
have preferred to remain in their village, 
had it not been for Agncs s great wish to- 
join a society of religious women, and 
attend the services of the Church. At 
the age of nine it seemed to her a siu 
to put off following her vocation, as she 
believed God had decreed that as th0 
one path by which she might be saved. 
Her parents were willing to let her 
become a nun, but wished to defer her 
separation from them. They were, how 
ever much impressed by an accident 
which befell her, and yielded to her wish 
to retire at once from the world. The 
first nuns she joined followed the rule 
of St. Francis, and were called " Sisters 
of the Sack," in derisive allusion to thei? 
coarse clothing. In this nunnery Agnes 
had raptures and ecstasies in which 
Christ, the Virgin Mary, and angels, 
appeared to her. It was even said that, 
to satisfy her longing to visit the Holy 
Laud, an angel brought her a clod of 
earth from the foot of the cross of Christ,, 
marked with drops of blood ; and that 
showers of manna fell upon her whilo 
she prayed. 

The inhabitants of Proceno, near 
Orvieto, hearing of the sanctity of the 
sisters of Montepulciano, begged that 



U. AGNES 



37 



some of them might bo sent to dwell in 
their midst. Agnes was one of tlio 
number, and was soon made superior of 
a new monastery of the Order of St. 
Augustine, which the Proceueso built 
when the number of their nuns had con 
siderably increased. After some years 
she returned to Montepulciano, and built 
a new church and monastery, in which she 
established the rule of St. Dominic. Sho 
made a pilgrimage to Rome, where 
she obtained relics of SS. Peter and Paul. 
She died at Montepulciano, in her 
41 th year. The family to which she 
belonged afterwards became one of the 
most considerable in Moutepulciano, but 
is now extinct. From the day of her 
death, in 11317, the people styled her 
M S;dnt." Her worship was encouraged 
by several Popes, and her name inserted 
in the Ronmu Marlyrology with the title 
of "Saint," but she was not formally 
canonized until the time of Benedict 
XIII., 172i. Thuribius, archbishop of 
Siona, and Jamus de la Marchu were 
canonized at the same time, and are 
sometimes represented with her on that 
account. It is said that her body was 
embalmed by supernatural means, imme 
diately after her death, and that when she 
Lad been dead fifty years, she opened 
her eyes and smiled on the Emperor 
Charles IV., who ever afterwards had a 
special devotion to this saint. 

Of all the Saints Agnes, here or else 
where enumerated, this and the great 
ST. AGNKS (2) are the only two in the 
liommt Martyroloijy, besides ST. AGNES 
OF ASSISI, who is mentioned in the 
Franciscan part of the Appendix to the 
-R.JJT. Modern Saints, sanctioned by the 
Fathers of the Oratory, from an Italian 
Bio(jr&lt;i&gt;luj, published at Siena, 177 . . 
Cahier. Butler. Baillct. 

B. Agnes ( 24) of Uavaria, Nov. 11. 
"f 1 -\ i 2. Daughter of Louis, duke of 
Bavaria, after wards emperor of Germany. 
Agnes was brought up in a Clarissan 
monastery at Munich. \Vhen her parents 
thought her old enough to appear at 
&lt;jourt, they sent for her ; but so great 
was her fear of the BIKUVS of the world 
that she threw herself d-.jwn before the 
tabernacle, and iirmly embraced the 
pedestal of it, crying out, " Divine Jesus, 



let me never be separated from Thee." 
Her prayer was heard ; she suddenly 
fell ill and died. Commemorated by the 
Franciscan nuns of Munich. Guerin. 



B. Agnes (25) of Siena, V. O.S.D. 
Supposed to have died about 1390. Nun 
in the convent of Montcregio at Siena. 
Miracles are attributed to her. Pio, 
Uomini c donnc. 

B. Agnes (2&gt;) Benincasa, 3rd 
O.S.D. 14th century. Sister of James 
Benincasa, who was father of ST. 
CATHERINE (3) of Siena. Agnes married 
Chole di Dnccio. After his death 
she joined the Sisters of Penance, 
then called Mantellate. Her portrait is 
painted in the dormitory of the convent 
of St. Dominic at Siena, inscribed with 
the words, " Beata Agneso Benincasa." 
Mrs. Draue, Life of St. Catherine of 
Siena, 1880. 

St. Agnes (27) of Mon^ada, Jan. 21, 
V. 1 4th century. Inspired with a love 
of celibacy and seclusion by the preach 
ing of St. Vincent Ferrer, at Valencia. 
Her parents insisted on her marrying ; 
so, disguised as a man, she fled and 
concealed herself, for twenty years, in a 
cave near the Carthusian convent called 
Porta-ccoli, the place of her retreat being 
known only to the dwellers in heaven. 
After her death her sanctity was attested 
by miracles. Bollaudus did not know 
of any authority for her worship. Jan. 
2 1 was assigned to her as the day of her 
great patroness, ST. AGNES (2). St. 
Vincent Ferrer died in 1419 ; he was a 
Dominican monk at Valencia ; a preacher 
famous all over Europe ; and was sent 
for to England by Henry IV. 

B. Agnes (28) of Ferro or Terro, 
June 13 or 15. 15th century. Widow. 
Third O.S.F. Belonged both by birth 
and marriage to very illustrious families 
of Aragon. She was an attendant on the 
queen of Aragon, mother of Ferdinand 
the Catholic. Weary of court life, sho 
retired from the world, gave her money 
to the poor, took the name of MAIIY OP 
JESUS, and became a nun of the Third 
Order of St. Francis, at Ulmet, in the 
diocese of Avila. She is mentioned in 
the Ordemlmlendt .i , in Burns (_ //////&lt;/&gt; 
&lt;&gt;f the Frtim-isnni Onlo; and in MonHtier s 



38 



B. AGXES 



Gynecseum ; but there is no office in 
her honour, nor does her name appear 
in the martyrologies of the great 
authorities. 

B. Agnes (29) or INEZ DE SKNNA, 
Nov. S. 7*1498. O.S.D. Nun. A pattern 
of goodness, and graced with miraculous 
powers. Manoel do Lima, Agiologio 
Dominico, iv. 339, on the authority of 
Bzovius. 

B. Agnes (30) of the Pescara, Nov. 
12. )" 1588. One of the Margaritole, i.e. 
nuns of the convent of ST. AGNES, at 
Foligno, popularly called the Margari- 
tura, from its superior, B. MARGAHET OP 
FOLIGNO. La Pescara was a villa in the 
neighbourhood of Foligno. Agnes was 
an example of every virtue. The nuns 
and other persons who were present at 
her burial saw a great company of pil 
grims come to venerate her, singing with 
angelic voices. The service ended, they 
disappeared. The Bollandists promise 
her story on her day. Jacobilli, Santi 
da Folifjno. 

B. Agnes (31) of Japan, Sept. 10. 
J-1622. Wife of B. Cosmo Taquea, 
or Takeya; he was a Corean, brought, 
at the age of 11, prisoner to Japan, 
where he served a great man for a long 
time, and had a house and a piece of 
ground given him. He used all his 
property to help the missionaries, es 
pecially the Fathers Angelo Orsucci and 
John of St. Dominic, whom ho enter 
tained on their arrival from Manilla, 
and to whom he taught the language 
and letters of the Japanese. Pie was 
burnt for the faith, Nov. 18, 1619, at 
Nagasaki. Agnes survived him three 
years, and was martyred at the age of 
42, on the same day as LUCY FREITAS 
(q-v.). Cosmo and Agnes are among the 
2&lt;&gt;"&gt; martyrs beatified with Lucy. Their 
son, Francis, aged 1 2, was put to death 
the next day. 

St. or Ven. Agnes (32) of Langeac, 
Oct. 19. Called AGNES OF JESUS. 1602- 
1634. O.S.D. Twice superior of her 
convent at Langeac, in France. Among 
other miraculous events recorded, it is 
said that she died and came to life again 
several times. The process of her 
canonization was begun in 1098, and 
Louis XIV. himself wrote to Clement 



XL on the subject. The process was 
frequently interrupted and resumed, 
until 1808, when Pius VII. declared her 
heroic virtue proven. AA.SS. Boll. 
Prseter. Les Mystiques. She is called 
in Guerin s Catalogue, Saint Agnes of 
Jesus. Her Life was written by Do 
Lantages, who tells that she consecrated 
herself as a servant to the BLESSED VIR 
GIN MARY, and wore an iron chain in 
token of servitude. 

Ven. Agnes (33), Tsau Kong, Feb. 
2S, &lt;. i860. First woman M. in China. 

St. Agrata, or GRATA. One of the 
martyrs of Lyons, beheaded, being a 
Roman citizen, instead of being killed 
by the beasts of the amphitheatre. Tille- 
mont. See BLANDIXA. 

St. Agrifa, or AGRIPPA, May 13, M. 
at Alexandria. Boll., AA.SS. 

St. Agrippina (1), June 23, V. M. at 
Rome, under Valerian (253-260). Called 
AGUAPHENA in the Russian calendar. 
Represented bound to the equuleus and 
scourged. Immediately after her martyr 
dom her body was taken secretly by SS. 
BASSA, PAULA (3), and AGATHONICA, who 
went carefully from place to place until 
at last they got to Sicily, and there they 
buried her. Every one who treated her 
church or relics with disrespect was 
struck with disease or death, and every 
one who applies to her to be cleansed of 
leprosy obtains his prayer to this day. 
JUI. Boll., AA.SS., from a Greek 
Menea. 

St. Agrippina (2), M. with LAURI- 

ANA. 

Ahemeri. The Ahcmcri are those 
saints that havo no particular day : such 
are CRESCENTIA, FABIOLA, RADIANA. 
Bullet. 

St. Aiala, May 8 (SCIALA, STIALA). 
303. One of many martyrs com 
memorated with, and supposed to have 
been converted by the example and 
teaching of, St. Acacius or Agathius. 
See AGATHA (2). 

St. Ailbert, Aug. 10, 11, 12 f AGIL- 
BERTA, AGUILIJERT). c. 680. Of the 
royal blood of France. Daughter of 
Abobinus and Pientia, and sister of St. 
Ebresilius, or Ebregesilus, bishop of 
Meaux. Succeeded her cousin TIIEODE- 
CHILD as second abbess of Jouarre, in 



ST. ALDKc.rxnis 



41 



blind, ami Kit alone in darkness all clay." 
The shepherd was so sorry for her, that, 
notwithstanding his fciir of the horse, he 
went and called it, and it came as meekly 
as the best-trained and gentlest horse 
that ever lived; it allowed the blind 
girl to mount, and she followed her 
father to the church of St. John. On 
reaching the gate, while praying, with 
her hands and face raised to heaven, oil 
dropped from on high into her eyes, and 
she was cured of her blindness. When 
Basin came and found that his daughter 
could see, he took her to the gate of the 
church of St. Peter. There she again 
became blind ; but her father led her 
into the church, prayed for her, and 
vowed to St. Peter all his worldly posses 
sions. Her sight was immediately re 
stored. Then all the people shouted 
and praised God for this miracle, and 
Aldeguudis offered herself at the altar. 
The church that Basin built was at 
Dronghen, on the Lisa, a mile from 
Ghent ; he and his daughter Aldeguudis 
are buried there. Henschenius, in 
AA.SS. ; Cuper, in the same collection, 
July 14. \Vion, Lignum Vitse. Baillet, 
Fiet, 

St. Aldegundis (2), Jan. 3&lt;&gt;, May 11, 
Oct. is, Nov. i:i, June 6, May 2(1 (ALDE- 
CONDE, OHGONM: . c. ;. JO-680. Born at 
Courtsore, Coursolre, or Consobre. 
Patron of Maubeuge and Emmerich ; and 
against cancer and pains in the chest, or 
breast. Founder and abbess of Mau- 
bcnge. Represented (1) walking on 
water, led by an angel ; (2) crossing the 
river Sambre dry-shod ; ( :&gt; ) with St. Hum 
bert of Maroilles bringing a fountain of 
water out of the earth for her, and a 
dove holding a veil over her ; in Callot s 
ImtitjM, she appears flying from her 
father s house. According to Guette, 
there is an ancient picture of her, wear 
ing the veil of a virgin, a violet cloak 
embroidered with flowers, and a red 
gown with a white tunic. This is the 
dress, not of a nun, but of a canoness ; 
she was not, however, a cauoness, 
although her monastery was, in later 
times, made over to canonesses, and the 
picture was probably painted aft r that. 

Daughter of SS. Walbcrtand BKUI n.i \. 
Younger sister of ST. WAI.TKUM:. Her 



father was a near relation of King Clo- 
tlmirc II. While very young, Alde 
gundis resolved on a religious life, and 
when her parents talked to her of 
marriage, she said, " Find me a husband 
whose estates are heaven and earth and 
the sea ; whose riches are for ever in 
creasing, never diminishing ; only such 
a one will I marry." Soon after this 
she went to Haumout, and there received 
the religious veil from St. Amandus, 
bishop of Maestricht, and St. Aubert, 
bishop of Cambrai. She walked dry- 
shod over the Sambre, and built on its 
banks a small nunnery, at a desert place 
called Malbode. The town of Mauberge 
grew up round her nunnery, which, in 
course of time, developed into the great 
and famous Benedictine monastery of 
Maubeuge ; centuries afterwards it be 
came a house of regular canonesses. 
Aldegundis presided there, with great 
wisdom and sanctity, for many years ; 
and eventually she died of cancer in the 
breast, about &lt;&gt;80, and was succeeded by 
her niece, ST. ADELTHUDE (1). Alde 
gundis is commemorated with a double 
office. The following story is told of 
her in the Golden Legend : 

Before she had taken the veil, while 
on a visit to her elder sister, ST. WAL- 
TRUDE, abbess of Mons, ST. BERTILIA 
came to see her daughters, and brought 
Aldegundis a piece of linen, which she 
told her to make into shirts, sheets, and 
kerchiefs for her future husband. Alde 
guudis, thinking that would be Christ, 
made the linen into chrisms, which were 
caps of a particular sort, worn by chil 
dren when they were christened. She 
used her utmost skill in adorning them 
with the finest needlework, and brought 
them to her mother, who, seeing her 
linen put to a use which she never in 
tended, was very angry, and took a stick 
to beat her daughter. Aldoguudis fled, 
and hid herself in the forest of Mau 
beuge. The nobleman to whom her 
parents intended to marry her sought 
her diligently in the forest, but could not 
find her. She remained there until after 
the death of her mother, when she took 
the veil, and built the convent of Mau 
beuge. Sr\vral miracles are recorded 
of her : one was that while she and her 



42 



ST. ALEXA 



sister were talking about their Divine 
Master, the candle went out. Alcle- 
gundis picked it up, and it lighted itself 
again as she took it in her hand. 

Her festival, Jan. , ju, is very ancient, 
being mentioned in calendars of the 
time of Louis le Debonnaire. The other 
days on which her name occurs in 
calendars are probably the days of trans 
lations of her relics, or of the dedications 
of churches or chapels in her name. 

Her Life was written by a contempo 
rary, but the original is lost. The 
oldest extant is preserved in the AA.SS., 
written by monks, who founded their 
stories on the original Life, and added to 
it from local traditions, etc. Baillet, Vie*. 
Butler, Lives. Nouvelle Biog. generale, 
edited by Hoefer. Paris, 1855. Cahier. 
Husenbeth, Emblems. Die Attnbufc. 
Golden Legend. Guette, Hist, de VEylixe 
de France. 

St. Alena, or HALENA, June 17, V. 
M. c. G-iO. Patron of Foret, or Vorst, 
near Brussels; and against diseases of 
the eye. Eeprescuted with only one 
arm, and with a crown on her head, or 
beside her. Daughter of a heathen 
prince, or king, whose name was Levold. 
Her mother s name was Hildegard. Le 
vold persecuted the Christians; but 
they were secured from his attacks by 
dense forests and by inundations. One 
day the king, while hunting in the forest, 
met a Christian. Surprised to find him 
in that lonely place, he asked whether 
he were one of his subjects, or who was 
his master. The man answered, " I am 
one of the servants of Christ. If you 
wish to learn our laws and customs, and 
to know who our Master is, stay with 
mo this night. To-morrow you shall 
see us offer our sacrifice to God our 
Father, and then you will know the 
difference between truth and falsehood." 
The king consented. The Christian 
received him very hospitably, and treated 
him with all the honour duo to his rank. 
Next morning he was present at the 
celebration of Mass ; but his hard heart 
preferred his own foolish heathen re 
ligion. When he returned home, he 
told his wife and daughter what he had 
heard, at the same time blaspheming 
and ridiculing the Christian religion. 



Alena, however, was inspired by God 
with so great a wish to see the Christian 
service, that, notwithstanding her natural 
timidity, braving the wild beasts and 
other dangers of the forest, she went by 
night to their place of meeting. One 
night, on her way to the chapel, she was 
taken by a watchman, but begged and 
bribed him to let her pass and to keep 
her secret. He acceded to her wish for 
the time ; but, seeing that she went out 
every night, he at last told her father. 
The king told him to follow her closely, 
and see where she went. The watch 
man reported that he had followed her 
to the river ; but as she crossed over 
miraculously, without bridge or boat, he 
could follow no further. The king said 
it must be by means of the magic arts of 
the Christians, and he stationed some 
soldiers on the bank of the river to bring 
her to him alive, that he might take 
vengeance on her for going over to the 
new superstition. The soldiers arrested 
her, and as she resisted, they pulled her 
violently by the arm, and dragged it off. 
She then fell down dead. The angel 
of God took her arm, and put it on the 
altar of the chapel where she used to- 
pray so devoutly. The priest, finding a 
bleeding arm there, said, "Perhaps this 
is the arm of the virgin Alena, who has 
been devoured by some evil beast." He 
then went to seek her, found her body, 
and buried it in the chapel, which was 
afterwards enlarged, and called by her 
name. It soon began to be reported 
that miraculous cures were performed 
at her tomb. Omund, a prince of the 
neighbourhood, who was blind, came to 
Levold, and said, " I hear all kinds of 
infirmities are cured at your daughter s 
grave ; therefore take me to it, that I may 
recover my sight." Levold, who had 
until then considered the miracles of 
his daughter a mere idle report, accom 
panied him to Alena s tomb, where his 
sight was restored. Both were con 
verted, as also was Queen Hildegard. 
Levold publicly confessed that he was 
the murderer, did penance at the grave, 
and was baptized by the name of Harold. 
He and his queen, after many good 
works, died piously, and were buried iu 
the church they had built in honour of 



B. ALEXAXDRINA DI LETTO 



43 



St. Ambrose. Several miracles are re 
corded of St. Alona during her lifetime. 
Once, when she went as usual to the 
forest chapel by night, she found the 
door shut, and sat down on the ground. 
The priest s servant happened to como 
past, and thought her a ghost, not sup 
posing any woman could bo there at 
that time of night. She told him not to 
be afraid, as she was only waiting for 
the morning prayers. {i You need not 
wait," said he, "for the priest is very 
ill, and cannot come into the chapel." 
" Go," said the holy maiden, " tell your 
master to arise and go into the chapel 
and say the office ; for God, who has led 
me hither, is able to cure him." The 
servant returned to his master and gave 
Aleua s message, and the priest rose up, 
restored to health, and chanted Matins 
as usual. Alena planted her staff in the 
ground and left it there while she went 
to prayers. \Vhen she came out of 
church, she found that it was growing, 
and had brought forth leaves. It grew 
tin TO for many years, and the nuts it 
bore used to be made into rosaries in 
the 1 7th century ; which proves the truth 
of tlio whole- story. I toll., AA.SS. 

St. Alexandra (l), April 21, M. 
ii&gt;_&gt;. Empress. Wife of Diocletian. 
Converted by seeing the tortures and 
bravery and the miracles of St. George. 
Condemned to bo beheaded with him ; 
but died in prison on hearing her sen- 
It lice. M. iiufiHfii of Btixil, April 21. 
1-11., AA.SS., April 2". This story is 
not confirmed by secular history. This 
is the same saint who is called in Roman 
tradition SI:UI:.\A. 

St. Alexandra (2), M. with ST. 

TH :. rs\. 

St. Alexandra (:;;, March 20, M. 
Early in Hh century. When the Chris 
tians were persecuted at Amisus, in 
Paphlagonia, in the reign of Maximian, 
Alexandra and six other holy women 
CLAUDIA, EUPHRASIA, JULIANA, MATUONA 
or PATUONA, EUPIIEMIA, and THKODOBIA 
(7) boldly declared their allegiance to 
the proscribed religion, and reproached 
the governor as cruel, unjust, and tlio 
enemy of the Truth. They were stripped, 
ln::itcu with iron rods, their br&lt; I 
cut oil , and they were then hung up l&gt;y 



the feet over a slow fire until they died. 
Their martyrdom was followed by that 
of DEIIPHUTA and her sister. Several of 
the names of these seven women are tho 
same as those of seven women martyred 
at Ancyra. See Tuners A. It.M. Boll., 
AA.SS. Jii uf. Il-cl xiiisti fii. 
Jst. Alexandra &lt; l &gt;, V. 4th century. 
A young woman of great beauty, who 
determined to lead a celibate ascetic life. 
Finding that she was much loved by a 
young man, she was afraid she was 
causing him to sin, so she shut herself 
up in a tomb, and there she spent all 
her time in prayer and meditation, ex 
cepting only one hour a day, which R!IO 
devoted to spinning. ST. MELANIA i 1 
visited Alexandra, but could not see her 
face ; she stood near the orifice that 
served as a window to her cell, and 
had an edifying conversation with her. 
After twelve years residence in this 
living grave, Alexandra was one morning 
found dead by the woman who used to 
bring her the necessaries of life. Si/h-" 
anaclioretlca ex Palladia Lmtsiaca. 

St. Alexandria, or ALEXANDER, Feb. 
28, M. Mentioned in a long list of 
martyrs who suffered for the Christian 
faith at Alexandria, and who are com 
memorated in the old martyrologies. 
Hcnschenius, in A A. SH. 

B. Alexandrina di Letto, April 
. J (ALESSANDKA, ALESSANDRINA). i:is.~i 
t458. O.S.F. One of a family of saints. 
Daughter of Nicola Raynaldo di Letto, 
a nobleman of Sulniona ; ho was royal 
vicar in Rome in 1:517, for Ilobert, king 
of Naples, and lord of the towns of 
Letto and Torre, in the Abruzzi. So 
says Jacobilli, but a comparison of his 
dates makes it seem more likely that 
this Nicola was her grandfather. Alex 
andrina was born at Sulmona. At the 
ago of i:&gt; she took the veil there, in 
the Franciscan monastery of ST. CLARA, 
whore she lived twenty-throe years. Her 
cousin, B. MARGARET, who attained to- 
great sanctity, followed her example. 
and became a nun in the same house. 
They had two other cousins, Clara and 
Lisa, and an aunt ({EMMA, who was tho 
mother of Clara. These three wero 
nuns in another monastery of tho Ord-r 
of St. Augustine, in Sulmoua. Discords 



ALGASACH 



arose in Sulmona, which led to the ban 
ishment of these five nuns and of the 
brother of one of them. They fled to 
Aquila, and remained there two years, 
praying assiduously to be guided where 
they should serve God. At last an 
angel revealed to Alexandriua that they 
were to go to Foligno, and there build 
a monastery which should be a temple 
of God until the end of the world. 
They obeyed the angel, and, arriving at 
Foligno on July U&gt;, 142.5, presented 
themselves to Monsignor Giacomo Elmi, 
the bishop, and to Corrado Trinci, lord 
of Foligno, and declared their intention. 
In three days these potentates gave them 
a site, and there they built a church and 
convent, which they dedicated to God 
in the name of ST. LUCY, V. M. The 
five nuns made public profession of the 
Order of St. Clara, and, like the fathers 
of the desert, lived devoutly without any 
ruler but the bishop. In 1439 Pope 
Martin V. placed them under the care 
of the fathers of the convent of St. Bar 
tholomew of Foligno, of that branch of 
the Franciscans surnamed the Zocco- 
lanti. The nuns soon became so re 
nowned for holiness that many virgins 
of noble families came to join them, 
from all the towns and places round, 
and many miracles were wrought through 
their prayers. This was the first mon 
astery to adopt the reform of the Order 
of St. Clara, and all the others through 
out Italy imitated it. Alexaudrina was 
unanimously elected first abbess, and on 
two subsequent occasions was re-elected. 
Her confessor ordered her to write a 
book describing the foundation of the 
monastery, and the lives of many perfect 
nuns who flourished there in her time. 
For the sake of obedience she acceded 
to his wish, although at the time laden 
with years and broken down by penances 
and fatigues. She died April . , 145S, 
at the ago of 73. The most notable 
miracle recorded in her life is that the 
sisters having dug a well, were much 
distressed to see no sign of water. 
Alexandrina prayed with tears and faith, 
and lo, the well was suddenly full of 
water to the very brim. They touched 
the water with their hands, and gave 
thanks. But it was not customary to 



have the water of a well quite on a level 
with the ground, so Alexandrina blessed 
the water, and commanded it to sink to 
a convenient level. This it instantly 
did, and ever after supplied the com 
munity with abundance of good water. 
Jacobilli, Saints of tlte Family of Lctto ; 
Saints of Unibria ; Saints of Foligno ; 
and BibUoiheca Umbrise. 

Algasach means DESIDEROSA, and 
was a surname of one of the SS.LASsAi: A, 
March 21*. Oth century. 

St. Alfreda, Aug. 2 (ALFRIDA, ETHEL- 
DRITHA). 834. Daughter of Offa, king 
of the Mercians, one of the most powerful 
of the Saxon kings, and conqueror of 
several of his contemporaries ; he held 
his court at Suttou Wall-is, in Hereford 
shire. His wife was Quendreda. In 
7!3 Alfreda was betrothed to Ethelbert, 
or F.gclbrit, king of the East Angles. 
Quendreda had him murdered in the 
interest of her brother Egfrid, who was 
innocent of any participation in the 
crime. The murdered Ethelbert was 
buried secretly at Marden. A pillar of 
light appeared at night over the spot, 
and revealed the grave. His body was 
translated into the church at Hereford. 
Tortured by remorso, the queen had fits 
of fury and terror. She died miserably 
three months after her crime. Alfreda 
fled to the monastery of St. Guthlac, at 
Croyland, and became a recluse there, 
being built up in a cell in the south part 
of the church opposite the high altar ; 
she lived there for forty years, and died 
about 834. Britannia Sancta, from Cap- 
grave and Harpsfeld. Butler, L/ms-. 
Bosch, in AA.SS. Boll. Mabillou, 
AA.SS., O.S.B. Srec. iv. i. 565. New 
man, Calendar f Enyltxh Saint*, in 
Apologia. William of Malmesbury, ll&lt; - 
t/iiiii AiKjl. i. 4. Wioii, Li juuiit 1 //;*, 
p. 52:;. 

Ven. Alfrida, Doc. 8 and first Sunday 
in July. M. c. 81i&gt;. The servants of 
God, Alfrida, SABI.VA, and EDITH, VV. 
MM., daughters of Kenulf, king of 
Mercia, like many English ladies of 
their time, set oft to make the pilgrimage 
to Rome. Crossing the sea, they landed 
at Mardick ; thence they went to Cassel, 
M here they were entertained for some 
%lays in a monastery. Scarcely had they 



VEX. OR B. ALIX LE CLERC 



started to pursue their journey, than 
they were killed in a forest by assassins, 
sent after them by the great lords in 
England, to whom they had been pro 
mised, and whom they had thrown over. 
When the bodies were found, an old 
blind gentleman put his hand into the 
blood of these martyrs, and, next time 
In- happened to rub his eyes with it, ho 
immediately recovered his sight. As a 
thank-ottering to God, he had them 
honourably buried, and built a chapel 
them, widely celebrated to this day 
for the cures and other answers to 
prayer obtained through the intercession 
nf the three virgins. Pilgrims flocked 
thither from all parts of Flanders, and 
in time the village of Caestre grew up 
annuid the famous Chapcllc dcs Trot* 
r,V, ;/ *. P.B., quoting the Abbe Des- 
tonibes, Saiiik 8 des dioceses de Cambrai 
,t tTArrtu. 

St. Algiva, June :J&lt;) (^LGISA, 
ELGIN). Probably the same as ELGIVA, 
Oct. It). 

St. Alice Rich, Aug. 24. c. 127&lt;&gt;. 
Prioress of Catesby. Sister of St. Ed- 
muiul, archbishop of Canterbury, and of 
B. MAUGAUET RICH. They were the 
children of Reynold and Matilda or 
Mabel Rich, tradespeople at Abingdon, 
in Berkshire, where the locality of their 
abode is still called St. Edmund s Lane. 
Mabilia practised the austerities of a 
nun, while living in the world and 
educating her children piously. When 
Reynold, having settled his attaint, com 
mitted his children to the care of Mabilia 
and l&gt;ccame a monk at Evesham or 
Knshuiii, he found the life of the cloister 
easy compared with that of his home. 
Mabilia, who always wore a hair shirt, 
and always grudged food or comfort to 
her&lt;rlf or any one else, was glad when 
her husband s departure left her free to 
increase her own and her children s 
austerities. After Edmund had been at 
nt Oxford for some time, during 
ii lie married himself to tho Virgin 
v, she sent him and his brother to 
1 aii- to finish their education. To 
: i them humility, she made them 
In-g their way thither like the poorest 
:its, although she ronld have j.ai I 
expends. She gave them a hair 



shirt at parting, and whenever she sent 
them clothes or other necessaries, she 
always accompanied the gift with that 
of some new instrument of penance. 
Falling ill and not expecting to recover, 
she sent for St. Edmund, and commended 
his brother and sisters to his care. Both 
of the latter wished to become nuns, so 
Mabilia left money sufficient to purchase 
entrance into a respectable, if not aris 
tocratic, monastery. Many parents at 
that time paid large sums to secure to 
their daughters a place amongst asso 
ciates of their own class, and a certain 
degree of comfort. Edmund, however, 
regarded this purchase system as siino- 
niacal, and looked about for.a nunnery 
where holiness was carried to the greatest 
attainable perfection, and where the 
piety of the young women would be of 
more account than their small dowry. 
After long search and waiting, ho placed 
his sisters in the poor Benedictine house 
of Catesby, between Banbury and Daven- 
try, and not far from Eydon, in North 
amptonshire. The prioress had heard 
of tho sanctity of Mabilia and the 
scruples of Edmund, and gladly wel 
comed Alice and Margaret as daughters 
of her house. Hero they both attained 
a great degree of holiness, and were 
successively prioresses. 

St. Edmund was appointed 45th arch 
bishop of Canterbury by Gregory IX. 
He afterwards became a Cistercian monk 
at Pontigny, in Champagne. lie died 
at Soissy, 1242, and was canonized by 
Innocent IV. four years later. Alice 
died about 1270, and miracles were 
wrought at her tomb. 

Matt. Paris, Hist. Major, ad Ann. 1257. 
Ferrarius, Novo Cat. Hook, ArchbisJn /,^ 
of Canterbury. The Bollandists, AA.^ v 
Aug. 24, place her name among the 
Praetermissi, saying that her worship is 
not generally authorized, although 
Wilson calls her "Saint" in both his- 
cditions of tho English Martyroloyy. 

St. Alikia. APPHIA, wife of Phile 
mon, is so called in tho Coptic calendar. 
AA.SS. 

St. Alimena, Aug. 22, V. Gucrin. 

Yen. or B. Alix le Clerc, Jan. 9. 
First regular canoness of tho Congrega 
tion of our Lady, or Ladies of tho 



40 



B. LIZ LA BOURGOTTE 



Congregation of Mary. Commonly called 
founder of that order, although it was 
actually instituted by Fourier, a Jesuit 
father. P&gt;orn of a noble family at 
Hemiremont, in Lorraine, in l."&gt;76; died 
Jan. 9, 1622. In her youth she was 
fond of dancing and of worldly amuse 
ments. Being at a country place called 
Hymont, near Mataincourt, on three 
successive Sundays, while she was 
attending Mass, her thoughts were dis 
tracted by the sound of a drum. The 
third time, giving her whole attention 
to the sound, she was absorbed in a vision, 
and saw the devil beating the drum, and 
followed by a number of gay young 
people. She forthwith resolved not to 
be one of them, adopted the white veil 
of the peasant girls of the place, and 
took a vow of celibacy, which greatly 
alarmed her parents, and scandalized 
the inhabitants of Mataincourt, where 
piety was not in fashion. She placed 
herself under the direction of Father 
Fourier, curate of Mataincourt, and 
afterwards became superior of a house 
of canonesses under his direction. 
While building the first monastery at 
Xancy, in 161."), Alix wont to Paris, to the 
Ursulines of the Faubourg S. Jacques, 
to learn their method of combining their 
cloturc with the instruction of little day 
scholars. She worked as a novice there 
for two months. The regulations of the 
new order were finished some years 
later. Meantime the nuns had several 
houses before they obtained permission 
to make them into monasteries. At 
length, all difficulties being overcome, 
and their novitiate finished, Alix and 
her companions took the solemn monastic 
vows in 1618 ; after which she redoubled 
her austerities, and thereby shortened 
her life. She was honoured as a saint 
immediately after her death, and many 
persons invoked her intercession with 
success. Helyot, ///*/. dcs Ordrcs Mo- 
nastiqucs, ii. chap. 64. 

B. Aliz la Bourgotte, June 2&lt; 
(ALKTIFA. AI.KXIA, ALKZA, ALIX, ALOYSI \). 
I-l.)G. U.S.A. In the hospital of St. 
Catherine at Paris, in 1328, there were 
brothers and sisters hospitallers who 
served the poor ; their duties were to 
receive for three days any poor women 



or girls who came to Paris, and to bury 
prisoners, who died in the Chastelet or 
Fort PKvosque, and persons found 
assassinated in the streets or drowned 
in the river. They had the right to 
bury, in the cemetery of the Holy 
Innocents, the poor who died in their 
house. In course of time, only sisters 
remained in the hospital, and in 1"&gt;."&gt;8, 
as there were no brothers, a secular 
priest, appointed by the archbishop of 
Paris, was the superior of the sisters. 
In this hospital, early in the 15th 
century, a holy maid, Sister Alix, or 
Aliz la liourgotte, lived for some years 
in the service of the poor. P&gt;y-and-by, 
desiring to lead a more retired life and 
have no intercourse with her fellow- 
creatures, she was shut up in a room 
at the top of the house to try isolation 
for a year ; after which she went to the 
cemetery of the Holy Innocents, and was 
walled up in a cell adjoining the church ; 
she had a window, through which she 
could hear Mass and services. Here she 
lived for forty-six years, with so much 
holiness that at her death, in 1466, Louis 
XI. raised a bronze tomb to her memory, 
with a rhymed epitaph, in which she 
was called "Sceur Aliz la P&gt;ourgotte." 
Helyot, Ordrcs Monattiqttes, ii. 2!4, says 
she was of the Order of St. Augustine. 
The Ordcnslccdendar of the Franciscans 
claims her as a member of their third 
order, and calls her Aloysia Pmrgotta. 
She is called, in the appendix to Saussaye, 
Mart. Gallicanum, P&gt;. Aletha, recluse at 
Paris. The 1 Jollandists say that although 
she is claimed by both these orders, she 
has no worship and no proper day. 

St. Alkalda, March 2S, Oct. 27 
( ALKELD, ALKILDA), a Saxon virgin, mar 
tyred by Danes. Eepresentcd in a 
window of the old church of Middleharn, 
in Yorkshire, being strangled by two 
women. So little is known of her, that 
some archaeologists suppose there was no 
saint of this name, which means a foun 
tain. St. Alkeld s Well is still believed 
to have healing virtues. Her church, at 
Giggles wick, in Yorkshire, was founded 
in the 1 2th century. Parker, Calendar. 
Arnold Forster, Dcd tcnt tun*. 

St. Alia, or ABBA, May 7, M. in 
Africa. AA.SS. 



B. ALPAlS 



17 



St. Alias, or II.M.AS. See ANNA (7) 
the (loth. 

St. Alma, probably the II. V. MAUY, 
Alma Muter. 

St. Almerida, May 2.:, M. in Africa. 
AAJ38. 

St. Almheda, Aug. 1 (AI.MKI-UA, 
AI.MKDIS, ALED, ELINED, possibly KI.I:- 
VI:TT\, KI.I.VN, Enw.\, ELLYW). Second 
half of tliu "th century. Aunt or sister 
of St. Kryiir. Daughter of Bragan or 
I .ryehan. who is also called Fugatius, 
and in llrittany Fagan and Frachan, a 
T.ritisli prince who gave his name to the 
province of Brecknock; a holy man, happy 
in a numerous pious family. Tradition 
says ho had three wives, twenty-four sons, 
and twenty-five or twenty- six daughters. 
He brought them all up with a view to 
their spreading the Christian religion 
among the Cymri. Some of them were 
saints, and churches have been dedicated 
in their names. Many of these so-called 
eons and daughters were, in all pro 
bability, grandchildren. Kice Kees gives 
a complete list of them. All appear to 
be reputed saints ; but with some this 

not certain. Of the daughters 

Mi:&lt; HELL, the eldest, married Gyyr. 
wi;&lt;;o\, married Cadrod Calchfynydd, 

Ki.i:i:r, married Ceretlig ab Cunedda, 
and was paternal grandmother of St. 
David. 

\i:i VDD, wife of St. Tudwal Befr. 
She founded Llannifydd, in Denbigh 
shire, and had two sons, SS. Cynin and 
Ifor. She is sometimes confounded with 
her nephew of the same name, and is 
perhaps the same as GOLENDDYDD, who 
was a saint, and is enumerated as another 

ST. IiMii:\(;.\i;. or &lt;V\&lt;;Ak, of Llech-in- 
Maelicnydd, in Radnorshire, mother of 
Synidr. 

ST. &lt;;)|.F.M.I.YI&gt;K a saint, perhaps tin- 
as \\:\-\ iii. 

Si. (i\vrNiuMi-. or (I\v\wi;imvini, a 
saint at Tywyn, in Merionethshire, 
mother of Cyn^&lt;.-n, who married on. 
randdaughters of Urychan. 

saint. 

Br, ELINED, the AI.MI-.DIIA of (liraldus 
Carnbrensis. 

ClDn&gt;RY&lt; ii- or ( ; i perhaps the 




same as KKKDKCH of Llandegwyn, in 
Merionethshire. 

ST. CI:M:I)|.ON. a saint on the mountain 
of Cymorth, probably near Newcastle, in 
Emlyn. 

ST. CYMOHTH, a saint at Emlyu, a dis 
trict on the confines of Caermartheu and 
Pembroke. Cyniorth, or Corth, was the 
wife of Brynach Wyddel, an Irishman, 
and had a son, Gerwyu, and three 
daughters, Mwynen, Gwennau, and 
Gwenlliw. 

ST. CLYDAI, sister of Cymorth and 
Ccnedlon, a saint. 

ST. TYDFUL (sometimes confounded 
with TANGLWST), martyred by a party 
of Saxons and Picts at a place called 
Mcrthyr Tydfyl, with her father, Bry- 
chan, and one of her brothers. The son 
of that brother raised the people, and 
put the enemy to flight. Her day is 
Aug. 21. 

ST. EXFAIL, perhaps lived at Merthyr, 
near Carmarthen. 

HAWYSTL, lived at Cacr Hawystl, which 
is supposed to be Awst, in Gloucester 
shire. 

ST. TYIJIK, murdered by pagans, at 
Llandybie, in Carmarthenshire, Jan. 90. 

KKXKYTHO.V and KKURBREIT are added 
by another authority. 

A church on the top of a hill, near 
the castle of Aberhodui, is called after 
M. Almheda, who, rejecting the alliance 
of an earthly prince, espoused herself to 
the Eternal King, and finished her course 
by a triumphant martyrdom. Ivico llees 
says her name is Elined, and that 
(iiraldus says she was martyred on a 
hill called Pengiuger, near Brecknock. 
11,-Hniiiiiii S uictu, from Giraldus Cam- 
brcnsis. Stanton, En. Mart. 

St. Alodia, M. with NUMLO (q.r.). 

Aloysia (1), LOUISA. 

B. Aloysia (2), ALIZ LA BOURGOTTK. 

St. Aloysia (:;), Sept. 11 , one of 
2H.*, ^\IM. in Japan. 17th century. 
li niKnin Strwpkio Mart. J.//.3/. Per 
haps same as L&lt;M i-,\ (4). 

B. Alpais ( 1 ), JSc-j). 1 7. Sth century. 
Penitent. Built a monastery at Or]). 
Commemorated by Jhiyssium, in his 
.I i litiinis to the Sniiittt &lt;&gt;f Jiflfium. She 
is probably the mistress of 1 epin, mayor 
of the palace, under Theodoric. Pepiu 



48 



ST. AM A 



put away bis wife, ST. PLECTRUDE, mother 
of his sons Grimoald and Drogo, and 
took, in her stead, Alpais, a beautiful 
girl, sister of a Frankish nobleman 
named Dodo. St. Lambert remonstrated. 
At first Pepin bore it meekly, and in 
tended to recall his wife, but at the 
sight of Alpais he fell again. Then 
Lambert advised him to undertake a 
pilgrimage to Rome. Alpais complained 
to her brother that Lambert dared to 
call her bad names, and to say that her 
marriage was null. He knew the people 
would revolt if Lambert suffered any 
violence, so he tried to persuade him to 
approve the marriage. Lambert refused 
to give Alpais the sacrament. She 
stirred up her brother and several friends. 
They attacked him in the night and 
murdered him, with his two nephews 
and some attendants, in the church of 
SS. Cosmo and Damian, near Liege, in 
the reign of Childebert, son of Theo- 
doric, about 7&lt;&gt;5. Boll., AA.SS. Prseter., 
quoting Rayssium s Additamenta. Biog. 
Lifyeoise. 

St. Alpais (2), Nov. 3 (ALPAYDE, 
ELPIDE, AUPAIES, AUPAISE, AUPASIE), V., 
living in 1180. The Marty rology of 
Salisbury, Nov. 3, says, "The feest of 
saynt Alpayde, a virgyn of poore byrth, 
and a keper of beestes in ye felde, yet 
obtayned she of our lorde ye clere 
understandynge of holy scripture and 
the spirite of couseyle, wt meruaylous 
prudence ; yet was she euer seke in body 
and neuer hole, and lyuecl many yeres 
wtout ony fode but onely the sacrament 
of Chrystes body, and many tymes was 
she rapte in to heuen, hell, and purgatory 
as by syght in her soule and under 
standynge of the joye and payne ; she 
had also yc spiryte of prophecy, and was 
of many miracles." 

Mezeray tells the same story in his 
Jlixtory of France, in describing the reign 
of Philip Augustus. He also says she 
lived at Cudot, in the diocese of Sens, 
and that, in his time, her tomb was still 
to be seen in the parish church, sur 
mounted by her effigy in stone, crowned 
with flowers, and the people of the 
country affirmed that God sanctioned, 
by numerous miracles, the devotion paid 
to this saint. 



Ferrarius says that she died at Ton- 
nere, Nov. 2. C.V.H. in Boll., AA.SS.., 
Nov. 3. Mas Latrie, Trt tsor, says she 
died 1211, and that a contemporary MS. 
Life of her exists at Paris, in tho 
Bibliotheque de 1 Ecole des Chartres. 

1881. 2;&gt;3. 

St. Alpina, June 22, 3VI. Mart, of 
Rdchenau. AA.SS., PrefcUtones, in. 

St. Alruna, June 1 ( .. Middle or 
end of llth century. Widow and nun, 
O.S.B. Born Countess Chambeusiu n. 
Married Macelinus. She was a mother 
and protectress of the poor, and of con 
vents, and was assisted in her good 
works by her servants William and 
Matilda. She hung her clothes on a 
sunbeam. She multiplied the bread for 
her poor guests. After she had had 
children enough, Macelinus set her free 
to devote herself to religion. Bucelinus, 
Men. Ben. 

St. Alumna, or DOMXA, one of the 
martyrs of Lyons, who died in prison. 
See BLANDINA. 

St. Alvenera, Aug. 2,~&gt; (ALVERA, 
ALVERENA ; perhaps AMVERTA and ALVIRA 
are the same). Supposed to have been 
a virgin martyr late in the 3rd century. 
Her skull is preserved at Limeil, a little 
town situated where the Vezere runs 
into the Dordogne, in the diocese of 
Tarbes, She is mentioned in an ancient 
martyrology, in an old Benedictine 
monastery at Tarbes, in the Pyrenees. 
AA.SS. Boll. Appendix. 

St. Alverta, V. at Agen. Sister of 
ST. FAITH. Perhaps same as ALVEXERA,. 
whose skull is preserved, with great 
veneration, at Limeil. 

St. Alvira, March 0, V. Probably 
the same as ELVIRA, or as ALVENERA. 

Alwerda, May 22, V. f 1(&gt;17 &gt; at 
Magdeburg. Lived in great sanctity \ 
and had celestial visions at the time of 
her death. Ditmar, Chronicle, book 7. 
AA.SS. Prseter., May 22, Feb. 7. 

Alwreda, May 23. Sister of IUM- 
GARD. Led a holy life at Magdeburg. 
Praised by Dithmar and Laherius. Pro 
bably same as ALWERDA ; both mentioned 
among the Prsetcrnissi, in AA.SS., Feb. 
7, May 22 and 2:5. 

St. Ama (1), March 28 (Ax&lt; -A. ANTA, 
AXIAS), M. at Rome. AA.SS. 



B. AMATA 



49 



St. Ama (2), June &lt;J, V. M. in Persia. 

St. Ama (:J), TALIDA. 

St. Ama (4), Sept. 24 (AMATA, AMK, 
AM UK. EMM v, hi MA, YMMA). b th century. 
Honoured at Joinville. Eldest of seven 
sisters. (See HOYLDA.) The name Imma, 
or Ame, is common in Champagne, and 
St. Ama is the patron of those so named. 
Baillet, Vi&lt;-*. Perier. AA.SS. 

St. Amabilia (1), July 1 1, V. Her 
bones and picture were preserved in 
the convent of St. Amand, at Rouen. 
Supposed to bo daughter of a king of 
England. AA.SS. Appendix. 

B. Amabilia (2), abbess. 12th 
century. One of the native patron 
saints of Bohemia, and patron especially 
of the family of Swihowski or Schu 
rhowski. Daughter of Wladislaus I., 
duke of Bohemia. Sister of Wladislaus 
II., a religious man and happy in 
having pious children ; he built the 
noble monastery of Srapow on Mount 
Zion. He went to Jerusalem in the 
crusade with the Emperor Conrad III., 
in 1 147. Later, when he had done good 
service to the Emperor in his wars 
against the Milanese, in Italy, Conrad 
gave him, fur his ensign, a white lion 
with two tails. Amabilia had another 
brother, Theobald, and a sister, B. 
ELIZAHKTU, prioress of Duxovia. Ama- 
bilia stayed with Theobald and lived on 
his estate. At Clatow, which seems to 
have been his property, she built a 
monastery, dedicated in the name of St. 
Lawrence, for Benedictine nuns, and was 
their first abbess. She wrought miracles 
during her life, and is buried in her own 
monastery, which, however, was after 
wards given to Dominican monks. The 
family of Swihowski, or Schurhowski, 
their descent to Theobald, and 
worship Amabilia with particular tle- 
i a- tln-ir patron saint. Chanowski, 
lia Bohemite 7V;r. Palacky, Ge- 
tckichtc von llli,,n //. 

St. Amabilis, July 2&lt;, M. in Africa. 
AA.S ^. 

B. Amadea, M-m-h &lt; &gt;, Oct. 2* (AMA- 
i K M, AMKDKA i. O.S.I I. 12th century. 
Called thr - i;i,-s&gt;rd Nun of Savoy." At 
the time that St. Amadous was bishop of 
mnc, his sister was a Benedictine 



nun in Savoy. He wrote eight homilies 
for her, which, according to Burgoner, 
were so highly esteemed as to rank 
among the writings of the Fathers of the 
Church. Amadous and Amadea were 
the children of Amadous, count of Haute- 
rive, and Petrouilla his wife, daughter 
of Guido VII., do Chuignos, duke of 
Yienue, in Dauphiny. Amadea was 
already a nun when her mother died in 
111 .*. Her father and a little brother 
went into the Cistercian monastery of 
Bonneveaux. Instigated by the Virgin 
Mary, Amadea begged her brother, the 
bishop, to give her the homilies he had 
written. He agreed, on condition that she 
should give him something. According 
to Buceliuus, the B. V. MARY provided 
her with a woollen cliyrotheca, or, as 
Burgener relates, a linen cover. It is 
impossible for us to ascertain of what 
material this article was made; for, 
although it was preserved for four 
centuries in the treasury of the cathedral 
of Savoy, it was lost or destroyed when 
that church was plundered in 153(3. 
Burgener, Helvetia Sancta. Bucelinus, 
Men. Ben., who quotes a Life of St. 
Amadeus by Kichard Gibbon. 

St. Amalberga (1 ), AMELBERGA. 
St. Amalberga ( 2), widow. Abbess 
of the convent of Lobbe, in 1408. In a 
collection of Images des saints, repre 
sented holding her pastoral staff and a 
knife. Erroneously confounded with 
the ST. AMKLBKUOA who lived in the 8th 
century. Guenebault, Diet. Icon. 

St. Amaranta, or AMARANTUS, Oct. 
2*, M. at Carthage. Early in the 4th 
century. AA.SS. 

St. Amarma, July s, wife of a king 
of the Goths. M. with St. Celian the 
Scot, and his brothers, SS. Aedh and 
Tadg. They were killed by the governor 
of the royal house, in the hippodrome of 
the king s palace. This was not later 
than the end of the Mh century, the 
latest entry in the Martyrology f Tullagh 
being, according to Oolgan, 899, Kelly, 

M&gt;rl Of TUa,jlt. 

St. Amata (1), TALIDA. 

B. Amata (2), or AIM HE, June 10. 
12.;*;. O.S.I). In 1217, when St. Dominic 
was preaching to the nuns of San Sisto, 
at Komc, the first convent of his order, 



50 



H, AM ATA MARTINI 



some secular women were present, and 
among them, one possessed by devils. 
The devil within her cried out during the 
sermon and reviled St. Dominic for taking 
away his prey, saying, " These nuns were 
mine, and you have taken them away 
from mo ; you have cast me out of four 
persons, but out of this one I will not 
go." The audience, scandalized, desired 
the young woman to be silent, but in 
vain. St. Dominic twice forbade the 
devil to speak. 1 &gt;ut he answered, " There 
are seven of us, and we will not be 
quiet." They described the way in 
which each of them had entered into 
their victim, and talked confusedly, like 
seven persons speaking at once. Then 
the saintly preacher raised his hand, 
made the sign of the cross, and com 
manded the devils to depart out of the 
unhappy woman, and torment her no 
longer. They obeyed. She cast coals 
and blood from her mouth, and was 
vexed no more. Very soon after this 
she became a Dominican nun at San 
Sisto, taking the veil from the hands of 
the preacher who had saved her. He 
gave her the name of Amata, and had a 
special affection for her as long as he 
lived. She accompanied B. CECILIA (11) 
to the new convent of St. Agnes, at 
Bologna, and led a very holy life. She 
was buried there with BB. CECILIA and 
DIANA. Pio, Uomini c donnc Illustri per 
Santita. 

B. Amata (.T) Martini, Feb. 20. 
13th century. Niece of ST. CLARA of 
Assisi. Daughter of Don Martini de 
Corano. Her parents intended her to 
be married. She was pleased with dress 
and worldly vanity. St. Clara grieved 
for the peril in which she saw her, and 
prayed that she might strive to please 
God rather than men. Her prayer was 
heard ; Amata was soon inspired with a 
disgust for the world and desire for a 
religious life. She was afflicted with 
dropsy and a very bad cough for a year. 
St. Clara cured her by laying hands on 
her and making the sign of the cross. 
Amata attended her aunt during her 
dying illness, and at the last saw Christ 
standing beside her patient. Amata 
was remarkable for her virtue and 
sanctity after the death of Clara. Buried 



with her sister ST. BALIJIXA. AA.SS. in 
Bcnt dicta, March lit, quoting Wadding. 

B. Ambrosia, one of the nine sisters 
of ST. RAIXFUEDE. 

St. Amelberga ( 1 ), June 1 &lt; &gt;, July i &lt; &gt; 
(AMALBERGA, AMKI.IA &gt;. 7th, sth, or ( . th 
century. Patron of women called Amale, 
Amalia, or Amcl ; also of Maubeuge and 
Binche. There is great obscurity con 
cerning her day, date, and history. She 
is worshipped on the same day as another 
saint of the name ; both contemporaries 
of one or other of the Pepins, mayors of 
the palace. She is said to have been a, 
niece of Pepin and wife of Witger, count 
of Lorraine, who was perhaps her second 
husband. Her daughters were ST. Iii:v- 
NELD, ST. EHMELIXD, and AMELBUKGA, 
who died young, and perhaps SS. 
PHARAILD and GUDULA. Amelberga is 
said, but not without contradiction, to 
have been the mother of St. Gengulf or 
Jingo, M., and St. Emibert, bishop of 
Cambrai or Arras. She became a nun, 
and Witger a monk. Her body was 
translated from Binche, in Hainault, to- 
Lobbes, where she is worshipped. Bal- 
deric, Okrofiique d Arras ct &lt;!&gt; Caml&gt;rt. 
Le Glay, chap. xvi. p. 5(i. Surius. 
Martin. Boll., AA.SS. 

St. Amelberga ( 2 ), or Amelia, July 
10, Dec. 12, V. c. 772. Patron of Ghent. 
A little print of her, given by Piuius in 
his Commentary on her history in tho 
AA.SS., represents her standing on the 
shoulders of a king, who lies flat on 
the ground, wearing his crown and hold 
ing his sceptre. At each side of her 
lies a huge fish; in the background, 
at one side, is a draw-well, at the 
other, a flock of geese. She wears a, 
nun s dress, holds a palm and an open 
book, and has a glory round her head. 
She is sometimes represented standing 
on a large fish, holding an abbess s 
pastoral staff and a book ; sometimes sho 
holds a sieve. She is invoked in cases 
of fever, bruises, pains in the arms and 
shoulders, and a disease of the intestines 
called in Flanders, " dcr /&lt;n/&lt;i&lt; // &lt;7/r/." 
Tho estate of Temsche on the Escaut 
belonged to her. Charles Mattel wanted 
to marry her, or, according to another 
account, it was his son Pepiu who wanted 
to make her his daughter-in-law by 



ST, AMELTRUDE 



51 



marrying her to Charlemagne. At first 
Charles carried on the negotiation by 
messengers, but, as she always refused, 
lie went to her house to try to persuade 
her. She fled from him and took refuge 
in a chapel ; the king, or rather mayor 
of the palace, got angry, tried to drag her 
away by the hand, and unintentionally 
hn &gt;ke her arm. After this, by the advice 
of St. Willibrord, she went to Bilsen, or 
Belise, and took up her abode with 
ST. L A MI! ADA, who was abbess tin re. 
While her marriage was still under dis 
cussion, Charlemagne paid his court to 
the Abbess Landrada for her sake, by pre 
senting her with a bear which he killed 
in the forest while hunting near the 
convent. Amelberga became a nun under 
Landrada, and seems to have succeeded 
her as abbess, or else to have governed 
a community of nuns on her own lands, 
as she is represented with a pastoral 
staff. One day she wanted to cross the 
Escaut, but found no boat. An immense 
sturgeon offered to take her across on 
his back, and landed her safely on the 
other side, in memory of which the 
fishermen of the place yearly offer a 
sturgeon at the chapel of St. Amelberga 
on her day, July in. It is even said 
that no sturgeon is ever seen in those 
waters except on that day, when one 
always presents itself. She died in a 
good old age at Bilsen, and was taken to 
Temsche to be buried. A number of 
sturgeons escorted the boat up the river. 
Twice in her life she fed the people 
during famine on the flesh of largo fish 
whieh appeared opportunely in the river. 
The sieve that she holds in her hand 
s perhaps a pun on the name of her 
te, and denotes that she was the pos 
sessor of the lands of Terasche, in French 
tise (/"Wx, a sieve). But a legend has 

found to account for it otherwise. 

The people of Temsche complaint- 1 to 

her that they had only one well, and that 

was in a field, the owner of which gaVo 

them a :reat deal of trouble. She went 

11 with a sieve, which she filled 

water and carried to another field, 
where .^ho set it down. Thenceforth 
there was an abundant supply of water 
m that place, but the old well dried up. 
A little cha|*l stands near her well, and 



pilgrims resort to both for miraculous 
cures. Long after her death, a woman 
of wicked life prayed for conversion at tho 
sacred, well. She became unable to leave 
the spot, retaining all her faculties while 
she kept within a certain short distance 
of St. Amelbcrga s Well, but becoming 
paralyzed directly she attempted to pass 
that boundary. As to tho geese in tho 
pictures, the same story is told of her as 
of ST. WEREBURG. All the saints re 
presented with geese have their feasts in 
winter. A goose is the Scandinavian 
sign for snow. The reason geese are 
given to St. Amelberga is that she is 
confounded with another saint of tho 
same name, whose ft tc is Dec. 1 2. Amel 
berga (2) was translated to St. Peter s, 
in Mont Blandin, near Ghent, in 870, in 
tho reign of Baldwin of the Iron Arm, 
first count of Flanders. Jft.Jf. Pinius, 
in Boll., AA.SS. Peter Natalis. Cahicr. 
Bald win of Ninove tells of Charlemagne s 
love for her, and places her death in 
7 1 . .*) ; bufccalls her niece of SS. GERTRI LI: 
and BEGGA, who lived a century earlier. 

/~*i T-k i * 



St. Amelberga (:J), Dec. 12, is per 
haps the daughter of AMELBERGA (1 ), and 
perhaps also the lady who ought to 
carry the goose. Sec AlOBLBEBQA (2). 

St. Amelia (1), May :;i, M. at 
Geruuda, now Gerona, in Spain. 

St. Amelia (2), June 2, M. at 
Lyons, not with BLANPINA. AA.SS. 

B. Ameltrude (1), or AMALTRI-I.I:, 
Nov. 1:5, is. Mentioned in the history 
of S. MAXKI.LKNDA, a martyr of chastity. 
When Maxellenda was murdered, her 
parents, with great lamentation and 
much ceremony, proceeded to bury her 
in tho church of SS. Peter and Paul, at 
Pomeriolas, near Cambrai. After three 
years, a religious widow, named Aniel- 
trude, who had built that church and 
spent her time in prayer there, heard a 
voice in the night, commanding her to 
go to Vindician, bishop of Cambrai, and 
urge him to take up the body of Maxcl- 
leuda and translate it to tho scene of her 
martyrdom, which was done. Surius. 
(II/HI 

St. Ameltrude (2), Aug. :;n ( A.MAL- 

Tiiri.i:, KMI:M)!:KMI.I.\, (. , V. 

7th or Sth century. The Normans, under 



52 



B. AMICIA 



Rollo, c. 87i5, took her body from Eng 
land to Jumieges, in Normandy, and 
placed it on the altar of the monastery 
of St. Peter there. It is supposed that, 
finding the body of the saint splendidly 
dressed and adorned with gold and silver 
ornaments, they carried it off, in hope of 
receiving a large sum as ransom ; but, 
disappointed in this expectation, they 
left it at Jumieges, where it was reve 
rently preserved by the monks. A 
chapel was called by her name, and a 
village near long afterwards bore the 
name of S. Emendrenille. Morosini, 
Eceles. Diet. AA.SS. 

B. Amicia, Feb. 23 (AMIGA, AMICITIA, 
and perhaps ANNA). O.S.D. 13th cen 
tury. Founder of Montargis. Daughter 
of Simon IV. de Montfort, earl of Leices 
ter ("J" 1218) ; her mother was Alice de 
Montmorenci. Amicia was sister of the 
great Earl Simon, called the father of 
the English Parliament. She married 
Gaucher de Joygni, seigneur of Chateau- 
Renard. This heroic matron, says Ma- 
noel de Lima, used all her influence to 
make her only son take the habit of St. 
Dominic ; asking this of God with great 
fervour, she obtained it in the hour of 
that son s death. Being rid of her hus 
band and children, she built a Dominican 
monastery at Montargis, and there took 
the veil, and led such a life as to be 
called by all writers, " Blessed." Lima 
calls her Anna, and places her death in 
1220 ; Guenebault, Diet. Icon., says 
12:;n ; and Pio says about 1235, which 
seems more likely. Lima, Agiologio 
Doinenico. Pio, Donne Hlmtre per Santita. 
Prothero, Life of Simon de Montfort. 
L Art d&gt; verifier /r.s Date*, ii. 482. 

St. Amida, or AXIMIDA, July 2, M. 
at Rome or in Mesopotamia. Seller, in 
AAJ98. 

St. Amie, Aug. !, M. in the East. 
Guerin. 

St. Amigradina, July 2, M. at 
Rome or in Mesopotamia. Soller, in 
AA.SS. 

St. Amma, (1) ISIPOUA, (2) PIAMUN, 
(3) TAUDA. 

St. Ammia (1) (A.MNKA, ELI&gt;E, HEL- 
ris), one of those among the martyrs of 
Lyons who, being Roman citizens, were 
beheaded instead of being killed, like 



their companions, by the beasts of tho 
circus. S- e BLANDINA. AA.SS. 

St. Ammia (2), Aug. 31. 3rd cen 
tury. Foster-rnottier of St. Mamas the 
martyr, who was born in prison. His 
parents, SS. Theodotus and RUFIXA, died 
there for the cause of Christ, and he was 
taken by a certain Christian woman of 
senatorial rank, and brought up kindly. 
KM. Men. of Basil, in Ughelli, ItU&lt;i 
Sacra, x. 

SS. Ammonaria (1 and 2), Dec. 1 2, 
MM. 2r&gt;(&gt;. AMMONARIA (1), V., was 
beheaded at Alexandria, in the reign of 
Decius. At the beginning of the trial, 
she declared she would not utter a word, 
and kept her resolution, in spite of long 
and terrible tortures. Her judge, not 
liking to be outdone in determination by 
women, had her companions beheaded 
without torture ; they were SS. MERCUHIA, 
DIONYSIA, and AMMONARIA (2). JR.M. 
J. M. Neale, Holy Eastern Church. But 
ler, from Eusebius. 

St. Ammonatha, Dec. 12. Baring 
Gould says she is mentioned in some 
Greek calendars, with ST. ANTHA, on 
this day. Perhaps the same as AMMO 
NARIA. 

St. Ammonia, Feb. 10. M.with ST 
COINTA and 1 ( &gt; others, at Apollonia, i 
Macedonia, under the Emperor Decius 
Ferrarius, Topography. 

St. Ampull, or AMPOULE, is sometime 
spoken of as if it were the name of 
woman, but this is not the case. It wa 
the sacred phial used for the anointin 
of Clovis, at his baptism, at Rheims, i 
41*6. The legend is that the crowd i 
the church was so great that the cler 
could not get through it to bring th 
chrism (anointing oil) to St. Rein 
(Remigius) the bishop, as ho stood 
the font with his converts. The bishop 
prayed that tho holy ceremony migh 
not be delayed, and lo ! a white dov 
appeared, bringing a small phial of oil 
with which the king was anointec 
The same phial has been used at th 
coronation of every king of France dowi 
to that of Charles X. in 1825. It i 
about the size of a walnut ; it has neve 
been replenished, yet it never suffer 
any diminution of oil. Colliii de Phmcy 
L -&lt;j ii lr* &lt;!" rilisfoire de France. 



ST. AXASTASIA 



St. Ana, V. Honoured in Ireland, 
Jan. 18, with ST. Si ..in (2). 

St. Anarguris, July 1. Patron, in 
some parts of ( recce, of flocks and herds. 
In the isle of Scio, the peasants take 
a sick ox to the church of St. Anarguris, 
and pray for its recovery, vowing that, if 
it is cured, they will present it to the 
saint when superannuated. On July 1 
numbers of old oxen are brought there 
and killed on the threshold, and the 
flesh is given to the poor. MacmiUan s 
MfKjaziiH , March, 188.% "Old Mythology 
iii Xew Apparel," by J. Theodore Bent. 

SS. Anastasia (1) and Basilissa, 
April 1 ."&gt;. (HI. Roman matrons of high 
rank and great wealth. Disciples of the 
Apostles. They were detected collecting 
and burying the relics of the Christians, 
and beheaded, after having their feet cut 
oil , and tongues torn out. R.M. AA.SS. 

St. Anastasia (2), Dec. 25, Oct. 20 
and 28, V. M. at Rome, in the time of 
Valerian (2:&gt;:&gt;-200). Called "the Elder," 
because she lived a generation earlier 
than the great martyr Anastasia. She 
is honoured on the same day as ANA- 
STASIA ( .-) ), and also on Oct. 20 and 28. 
She is in the R.M. Oct. 28. In the 
Menoloyy of Ba#il t Oct. 12, she was a 
nun under ST. SOPHIA, from the age 
of 2o. She was accused to Probus, an 
officer under Diocletian, of worshipping 
neither the gods nor the Emperor. He 
sent soldiers, who broke into St. Sophia s 
house i called inonasferium, but there 
were, at that time, no monasteries in the 
modern sense of the word), and took 
Anastasia to their master. Sophia ex 
horted her to endure all things bravely 
for the love of Christ. Probus advised 
her to renounce her religion. She had 
her breasts cut oil , her tongue cut out, 
her teeth drawn, and her nails torn off. 
She asked for water, and one Cyrillus, 
who was standing by, gave it her, and 
obtained as his reward the martyr s 
crown. Anastasia was beheaded, and 
left on the ground to bo eaten by beasts 
and birds of prey. Sophia, who had 
pray:il earnestly that her young discij&gt;l&lt; 
icit not yield to the assaults of the 
enemy, came to take her body, arid give 
thanks that sin- was now safe with Christ. 
J3eing a feeble old woman unable to walk 



without a stick, much less carry the 
mutilated body of Auastasia, she was 
assisted by two angels. JR.3f. 

St. Anastasia ( $), Jan. 5, M. in 
Africa. AA.SS. 

St. Anastasia (4), July 29, M. 
AAJS8. 

St. Anastasia ("&gt;), Dec. 25, V. M. 
304. Patron of Zara ; of Santa Severina, 
in Calabria ; and of weavers. Called in 
the Greek Church, " The great martyr 
Anastasia, the dissolver of charms ; " 
called in the Grseco-Slftv. JforfyttJlomf, 
given in the AA.SS., vol. 3, * Dissolver 
of chains and parmacolytria." One of 
the great patrons of the Western Church. 
Her name is in the canon of the Mass. 
It is also in the Sacramentary of St. 
Gregory, and other ancient catalogues of 
martyrs. A very old church in Rome is 
dedicated in her name. In the Acts of 
St. Chrysogomis. which, however, are not 
of undisputed authenticity, it is said 
that he was her spiritual director ; that 
she visited him in prison ; and that she 
was tortured and burned alive, by order 
of the prefect of Illyricum, in 304. Her 
body was removed to Rome, and buried 
in the church which bears her name ; 
but afterwards translated to Constanti 
nople. The Popes anciently said their 
second Mass on Christmas night in the 
church of St. Anastasia, whence a com 
memoration is made of her in the second 
Mass. The story of her persecution and 
martyrdom is given, with variations, by 
Vega and Villegas, quoting Ado of 
Troves, Bede, and other ancient hagio- 
graphers. According to these legends, 
she was the daughter of Protasius, or 
Pretaxato, a heathen Roman nobleman, 
and PAUSTA, or Flavia, who was secretly 
a Christian. Anastasia was brought np 
in the faith of her mother, with the 
assistance of St. Chrysogonus, a venerable 
priest of the Christians, whom both 
mother and daughter visited and assisted 
when he was obliged to conceal himself 
from the persecutions of the heathen. 
Fuiista Ittiiig dead, and Chrysogonns in 
prison, Protasius married St. Anastasia, 
against her will, to Publius, a heathen. 
II - was so angry at her unconcealed dis 
like to the marriage, and at the report 
that she belonged to the despised and 



ST. ANASTASIA 



suspected sect of Christians, and used to 
go secretly, with her maid, disguised in 
men s clothes, to visit the prisoners of 
her religion, that he at once imprisoned 
her, intending to starve her to death, and 
take possession of her property. During 
her imprisonment, she was comforted by 
letters from St. Chrysogonus, who en 
couraged her to suffer all things rather 
than renounce her religion. At her 
husband s death she was brought out of 
prison with her three maids, who had 
shared her captivity, and who were 
immediately put to death. The judge 
who condemned them was found dead in 
his bed next morning. His successor, 
trying to persuade Anastasia to abjure 
her religion, was struck blind, and, calling 
on his gods for help, was answered by the 
devil, " Because you have insulted the 
spouse of Christ, you shall be tormented 
by us in hell." He died the same day. 
Another judge, knowing that she had 
great possessions, said, " Give me all 
your riches, then you will be a true 
Christian ; I will let you go and worship 
whom you please, and your poverty will 
please your God." Anastasia replied, 
k * My Master would have me sell what I 
have, and give to the poor ; but you are 
not poor, and would spend all in sinful 
luxury." He condemned her to die of 
hunger. She was fed by angels, or by 
the spirit of her friend ST. THEODOKA, or 
THEODOTE, who had formerly helped her, 
but who had before this time suffered 
martyrdom. Auastasia was next put in 
a boat, with a number of other Christians, 
and set adrift on the sea; they were safely 
cast ashore on the island of Palm aria, 
where other Christians already lived. 
The whole community were edified by 
the conversation of St. Anastasia, who 
was soon remarked by the authorities 
as an irrepressible Christian, and con 
demned to bo roasted alive. She said 
she did not fear pain, because she had 
Christ in her heart; so the governor 
ordered her heart to be brought to him 
after her death ; and he found the name 
of Jesus written on it. 27&lt;&gt; companions 
of her martyrdom in Palm aria are 
honoured with her. Other accounts 
place the scene of her martyrdom in 
Home, and say she was buried by her 



friend APOLLONIA in her garden under 
the Palatine hill. Others say Apollouia 
buried her in Dalmatia, whence she was 
translated to different places. A laugh 
able story is told of her three maids, 
AGAPE, CHIONIA, and IKENE. EM. 
Goldt ii L ij&lt; ii&lt;l. Villegas. Vega. Butler. 
Baillet. Greek and Russian calendars, 
Dec. 22. Mrs. Jameson. 

St. Anastasia (&lt;&gt;) of Olivet, June 2, 
5th or early lith century. Called " Saint " 
by Philip of the Visitation, in his Hixtory 
of tlie Cfti iiti litf*. She is mentioned as 
leading a holy, ascetic life on the Mount 
of Olives in the time of the famous abbot, 
St. Sabas, who died at a great age in 5- 52. 
AA.SS. Prsetrr. 

St. Anastasia (7) Patricia, March 
10. r&gt;)7. A beautiful patrician matron 
of Constantinople, named Auastasia, in 
voluntarily became the object of the 
admiration of the Emperor Justinian, 
and the jealousy of his wife Theodora. 
Anastasia fled to Alexandria, and built a 
convent five miles off, in a little town 
called Quinto. This convent stood for 
many years after her death, and was 
called from her the convent of Patricia. 
A few years after her flight, Theodora 
died ; and Auastasia, hearing that Jus 
tinian was searching for her, left her 
retreat by night, and went for protection 
to the abbot Daniel, who presided over 
a laura in the desert of Sceta. She told 
him her story. He put her in a cave 
some distance from his dwelling, for 
bidding her ever to leave it, or any one 
else to enter the place of her retreat, and 
called her Anastasius the eunuch. He 
showed the place to one of his monks; 
told him to take a vessel of water there 
once every seven days, and put it down 
in front of the cell ; then, having listened 
to one prayer of the recluse, he was to 
come away. In this manner Anastasia 
lived for 20 years, without departing 
from the rule given her by Daniel. 
Feeling herself near death, she wrote on 
a shell a request to the abbot to come 
and bury her. She then hung the shell 
outside her cell. Daniel, warned in a 
dream, told the monk to go to the cell 
of the eunuch Anastasius, where he 
would find a shell, with writing on it, 
hanging outside the door. He did so, 



ST. ANEGLIA 



and brought it with all speed. They 
went to her, and found her in a fever. 
The abbot kneeled dmvn beside her. 
She sat up in her lair, kissed the old 
man s head, and entivate.l him to bury 
her in the clothes she wore, and not to 
reveal her story or her sex to any one ; 
then she begged his prayers and blessing, 
and gave him hers. When he had signed 
IUT with the cross, her face beamed with 
celestial light, and illumined the cavern 
as if many lamps had been there. Then 
she died, and the two monks buried her. 
As they were returning home, the younger 
monk said, " Father, do you know that 
that man was a woman?" The abbot 
said, " I know it, my sou." Then ho 
told him her story, and the reason of her 
concealment. AA.SS., from the great 
&lt; of the Greek Church. 

St. Anastasia (8), Sept. 9, Dec. s, 
Dec. !, V. 8th century. Third or fifth 
abbess of Horres, near Treves. Buce- 
liuus, Mrn. J&gt;&lt; n. FerrariuSj Martyrdogy* 
Usuard and Molauus, in their Calendars* 

B. Anastasia ( 1 J)&gt; Dec. 24, V. 
Cistercian nun at Ramey, in Brabant, 
appeared, after her death, to her friend 
B. IDA of Xivelle, dressed in splendid 
purple robes, adorned with jewels, sur 
rounded with a great and glorious light, 
and attended by a multitude of holy 
virgins. Ida asked her how she had 
earned this promotion, and she said, 
" Inasmuch as for a long time I patiently 
endured grievous bodily sufferings, a 
scourge with which my Father was 
pleased to * afflict me, therefore I am 
numbered among the martyrs. By the 
four splendid stones that you see in my 
crown, are meant the four principal 
virtues : Wisdom, Temperance, Forti 
tude, and Justice." Having said this, 
she departed. Bucelinus, Men. 11* //. 
Henriquez, Lil m. 

B. Anastasia (i&lt;&gt;), Dec. 8. 1240, 
Duchess of Pomerania. Daughter of 
Mieczhlaws, duke of Poland. Married, 
in 1177, as his second wife, Bogislaw 
I., duke of Pommrrn Stettin, who died 
March is, lls7. Anastasia then built 
the lied Monastery, in the dioceso of 
ito, in Sclavonia. She brought 
thither, In nuns of the Priemoustra- 
teusiau Order, from the Bethlehemito 



monastery, in Frisia. Having divided 
her lands and goods between her two 
sons, she betook herself to her new 
monastery, and lived there, in great 
strictness and humility, as a lay-sister. 
Mirocus, Oi tliii-x Prsemonstnitensis Chr&lt;&gt;ni- 
eoft, p. 17 .. Biilow, Staimnt if In det 
Piniiii iTxi-li 7if/x/N&lt;7/t Fiirxtenhausffi, p. 1. 
Le Paige, 2}il&gt;L Or&lt;l. Prsemonst. Holyot, 
G/V//VX JfojuiftftgiMf, ii. 20. 

St. Anastaso, or ANASTASONE, July 
18. Matron in Epirus. Guerin. 

St. Anatolia (1), PHOTIXA (1). 

St. Anatolia (-&gt;), J" 1 ? J) v - M - 3rd 
century. Sister of ST. VICTORIA. Repre 
sented (1) with torches and serpents; 
(U) delivering a man from a dragon ; 
(3) breathing in the face of a possessed 
Anatolia and Victoria were 



man. 



banished from Rome, in the persecution 
under Decius, because they had made a 
vow of virginity. Anatolia, after show 
ing her sanctity by casting out devils, 
was shut up with a serpent. It did her 
no harm, but bit Audax, her guard. She 
took the serpent in her hand, spoke to 
it, and sent it away. She cured Audax 
and converted him. They were both 
tortured and put to death. She was 
buried at Terano, in the Sabino hills. 
She is honoured with Audax, July -&gt; ; 
and with her sister Victoria, Dec. ^18 ; 
and Victoria has a separate festival, 
Dec. 2:J. EM. Boll., AA.SS. Hare, 
Citli x of Italy. Husenbeth. 

SS/ Anatolia 00 and Faustina, or 
F ELICIT AS, July !&gt;, MM. with seven 
Christian priests. Boll., AA.SS. 

St. Ancilla, April ,"&gt;, V. M. 343. 
Maidservant, either to ST. PIIEUHUTIIA or 
her widowed sister, and martyred with 
them under Sapor, king of Persia. s 
TABBULA* 

SS. Androna and Theodpta, Nov. 
1, :;, MM., with Severus and Theodotus. 
Mentioned in a metrical Greek Mar- 
tyrology. G. V. II., m ^2l.S., Nov. 3. 

St. Andropelagia, Sept. r.. c. 250. 
V. M. with her sister THKCLAOI- THKOCLA, 
and CALODOTA, at Alexandria, in Egypt, 
with a priest, a deacon, a reader, a soldier, 
a sailor, and four other men. AA.SS. 

St. Anea, May 2s (AsiA, ANIAS), M. 
at Rome. AA.SS. 

St. Aneglia, ()&lt;:MK, OGNIES, or 



56 



ST. AXGADRESIMA 



ONEGLIA. 8th century. Friend of St. 
Silvinus, a legionary bishop, whose office 
was to preach to the heathen ; he died 
at Auchy, in Artois, 718, and she took 
care of his body and buried it. She is 
mentioned by Henschenius, in the Life 
of St. Sih inun, Feb. 17, and is there said 
to be the wife of Asquarius and mother 
of Siccidis, who is probably ST. SICILDIS. 
Mas Latrie, Trt sor, says Aneglia was 
wife of Adalsque, and is honoured at the 
Fountain of Besse. 

St. Angadresima (1), March 17, 
Oct. 14, June 27 (ANDRAGASIMA, ANDRA- 
GASYNA ; in French, ANGADKEME, ANGA- 
REME, or GADRON ; in the Martyrology of 
Salisbury, GAWDRYSYVE), V. "f c. 695. 
Abbess of Oroer, near Beauvais. Patron 
of Beauvais. Represented marked with 
small-pox, carrying coals in her apron. 
Daughter of Robert, keeper of the seals 
under Clothaire III., and his mother ST. 
BATHILDE. Robert betrothed Angadre- 
sima to Ansbert or Austrebert, son of 
Swivin, lord of Vexin. As both Ausbert 
and Angadresima wished to remain un 
married from religious motives, they 
agreed that, if compelled by their parents 
to marry, they would pray to be pre 
served from any love for or human 
interest in each other ; Angadresima also 
prayed that she might lose whatever was 
attractive in her. She was soon after 
wards dreadfully disfigured by small 
pox or leprosy, which she regarded as a 
good excuse for breaking off her engage 
ment without disobeying her father. 
Robert now took her to Rouen to receive 
the religious veil from St. Onen, the 
bishop. Not long after her profession 
she was ordered to bring some live coals 
to light the candles. She brought them 
in her aprou, which was not burnt ; this 
miracle is represented in her pictures. 
She soon became the spiritual mother 
of many nuns, whom she edified and 
governed for . Jo years, in an abbey which 
her father built for her at Oroer, near 
Beauvais. Her life is gathered from 
that of St. Ansbert, \\ho was to have 
been her husband. AA.SS. Baillet. 
Bucelinus. Cahier. In 1473, in the 
reign of Louis XI., the city of Beau\is 
was miraculously defended against the 
Burgundian army by this saint ; and 



ever after, on her festival, women and 
girls took precedence of men in the 
procession. Monstier, Gynecseum, March 
27. 

St. Angadresima (2), AXDIJAGA- 
SIMA, AN&lt;;.\I;I:MK, ANCJARISMA, etc. 7th 
century. Abbess of Arluc, near Antibes. 
Migne. 

St. Angela (1) of Bohemia, July (&gt;. 
] 2th century. Carmelite nun. Daughter 
of Wladislaus II., duke of Bohemia. 
Sister of Ottocar, first king of Bohemia, 
and B. AGNES of Bohemia. Angela 
had divine revelations, and wrote several 
books, one on the Venerable Sacrament ; 
hence, in her picture in the church of 
the Carmelite fathers at Prague, she is 
represented holding a book. (Chanowski, 
Vcstiyia Bohcmise Pise.) A legend, from 
the Speculum Carmclitanum in the AA.SS. 
is as follows : 

ST. ANGELA OF BOHEMIA, V., daughter 
of a king of Bohemia in the 12th cen 
tury, supposed to be Ladislaus II., was 
born at Prague and brought up in a 
convent, from which she escaped in 
men s clothes, to avoid being given in 
marriage to the son of the king of 
Hungary, leaving a letter to tell her 
father that she would belong only ta 
Christ. Her first resting-place was the 
house of some infidels, whom she con 
verted and taught to read. In the depths 
of a dreary forest she was hospitably 
received by some barbarians, who engaged 
her for a time as their secretary. Pro 
ceeding on her travels, she met a company 
of people in a wood, one of whom, a 
soldier, was going to Jerusalem by way 
of Constantinople, and gave her his 
protection as far as the latter city. In 
the church of St. Sophia there, Christ 
appeared to her and gave her a Latin 
book of prayers, which were those of the 
order of the ] brothers of our Lady. 
She next went with the soldier to 
Jerusalem, where a woman gave her 
clothes, and took her to the prioress of 
the Sisters of our Lady, who had seen 
her in a dream, and having looked at 
her book and found her to be the same 
as the woman of her vision, received her 
into the sisterhood. Here, before long, 
she became prioress, and so continued 
for 35 years. During that time, by 



II. AXCJKLA 



57 



IUT prayers, she rescued her monastery 
from the Mamelukes, Ethiopians, and 
Saracens, and obtained rain by her inter 
cessions. Afterwards, being warned that 
great troubles were coming on her 
own country, and that it stood in need 
of IHT prayers, she returned to Prague, 
where she is said to have died towards 
the end of the 12th century. 

The first invasion of the Mamelukes 
was in 1 J ."&gt; , and it was repeated from 
time to time till 1516, so that if it is 
true that she rescued her convent from 
these infidels, she must have lived at 
least (in years later than she is said to 
have done. Pinius, however, the editor 
of this volume of the AA.SS., does not 
appear to consider any part of the legend 
reliable. Probably it is a romance 
added to the life of the sainted Princess 

A.NGKI.A OF liOHEMIA. 

B. Angela (2) of Foligno, Jan. 4, 
March :}(&gt;. 1249-1300. Patron of Foligno. 
: .i.l O.S.F. Represented (1) with a 
crown of thorns in her hands ; (2) with 
all the instruments of the Passion in 
her arms, a crown of thorns on the 
ground at one side of her, and a crown 
of roses and thorns at the other. Of a 
distinguished family of Umbria, born at 
Foligno, a few miles from Assisi. Her 
mother, a good woman, gave her some 
religious instruction ; but, according* to 
tin- custom of the time, so much deplored 
by ST. ANGELA DE MERICI, her education 
a good deal neglected. Angela 
married young, and had several children. 
Sin: was not a good wife or mother. 
Sin; was self-indulgent and fond of 
pleasure, and had plenty of money, both 
fr.,m her own family and from her 
husband, to procure everything she 
wanted. She had occasional serious 
thoughts, and fears about her salvation. 
.vus kind and generous, and retained 
in. in lit r motht -r s early teaching a great 
v ncration for St. Francis. While break 
ing tin: commandments she sometimes 
said to herself that if death overtook her 
so far from her duty to her husband, 
her children, and to (Jod, she would 
! lost; but sh&lt;; shrank from changing 
all her habit--, not liking to excite 
observation, and not having courage to 
break \vith her life of ease and pleasure. 



At last it happened that her mother, 
her husband, and all her children di-d 
in a very short time. Her grief for their 
loss, and her startling conviction of the 
suddenness with which souls may bo 
called away from this life to the o"th-r, 
led her to withdraw at once from her 
former pursuits and companions, and 
give herself up entirely to devotion. 

She joined the Third Order of St. 
Francis, and tried to repent and amend ; 
but at first did not confess fully and 
honestly, because the confessors were so 
strict, and she was so ashamed of the 
sins into which she had fallen. She re 
ceived the Holy Sacrament without 
having made a full confession. 

The devil kept tempting her at times 
to return to her old vices and pleasures, 
sometimes to commit sins even greater 
than any she had been guilty of, and 
sometimes to despair of forgiveness and 
oven of repentance. This struggle 
lasted about two years. She declared 
she would rather bo subject to all the 
diseases in the world, and all the 
tortures and wounds of the martyrs, than 
again undergo such temptations. Then 
came peace, for she began to love God, 
and to see that Ho was the proper object 
of her thoughts and aspirations. She 
cared no longer for any thing or person 
on earth, not even for the saints and 
angels, but for God alone. After this 
the devil again tempted her to sin, to 
despair, and to kill herself, but she came 
to trust in the love of God. She had a 
friend, a devout woman named Pasqua- 
lina, who assisted her in her charitable 
works, and went with her to visit the 
poor. After they had given all their 
property away, Angela said to Pasqua- 
liiia, "Let us go and visit our Lord 
Christ in the hospital of San Feliciano." 
They wanted to give the patients some 
thing. All they could muster was a 
handkerchief and a cloth of little value. 
These they got the servant of the 
hospital to go and sell for them. In 
spite of her reluctance, she consented, 
and brought them back twice as much 
money as they expected. With this 
they sent her to buy comforts for some 
of the most sulfering patients. Mean 
time the two friends washed the lepers 



58 



. VEX. ANGELA 



and thoso who Lad dreadful sores ; they 
made the beds, and said words of con 
solation and kindness to the poor sick 
people. 

When Angela was dying, 1300, she 
said, " Now my soul is washed and 
cleansed in the blood of Christ. He will 
not send saints or angels for me, He 
will come Himself." She was buried in 
a chapel of the church of St. Francis 
in Foligno. She was beatified by 
Innocent XII. in 1603. Jacobilli, Santi 
dell Uinbria, gives other incidents of her 
life besides these. 

There exists a very curious little book 
of Visions and Instructions, dictated by 
her to Arnold, a Franciscan monk and 
her confessor, and revised by her after 
lie had written it. He adds some little 
explanations and an account of her death. 
A copy in the British Museum is sup 
posed to have been printed at Venice in 
1500. It is reprinted as Part V. of the 
JKblioiheca Mystica et Ascetica, 1840. 
There is an English translation by a 
secular priest. In this book Angela tells 
that, while she was trying to repent 
and was being converted, she went 
through 18 steps before she arrived at 
knowing the imperfections of her life. 
Collin de Plancy gives a short sketch of 
her in his Saintes ct Bienlieurcuses. 
Bussy, in his Courtisannes de venues 
Saintes, mistakenly gives the date of 
her death as 1588. Boll., AA.SS., 
Jan. 4. A.R.M., Mart. Seraphici Ordinis, 
March 30. 

Ven. Angela (3) Chigi. 14th 
century. 3rd O.S.A. Of the powerful 
family of the Chigi, lords of Macerato. 
Niece of B. John Chigi of Siena, for 
some time a monk in the old convent of 
Val d Aspra. She gave all her goods to 
the convent of Saut Antonio at Val 
dAspra, and took the veil there in 13 &lt;i. 
Representations of her as a saint, and 
bearing the title of " Blessed," were 
common in Italy. A short history of 
her life was appended to that of her holy 
uncle, published in Kome by Father 
Capizucchi, master of the sacred apostolic 
palace. Torelli, Secoli A&lt;joxt nilni, VI. 

B. Angela (4). A Eomau of the 
Order of Hospitallers of the Holy Ghost. 
"f c. 1450. In Van Lachom s Collection &lt;&gt;f 



Foundresses of Orders, published 1030, 
she is represented with a cross crosslet 
on her cloak. Guenebault, Diet. Icono- 
grctphigue. 

B. Angela (5) of San Severino, in 
the march of Ancona. O.S.D. Perhaps 
14th century. Pio. 

B. Angela (O) Serafina, March 
24, Feb. 4 (ANGELICA SERAPHINA, CORRE- 
GIARA, CORTREGIARA). "J 1512. Dominican 
nun, under B. ANTONIA OF BRESCIA, in 
the convent of ST. CATHERINE THE 
MARTYU, at Ferrara. She was never 
guilty of mortal sin, and died in the 
odour of sanctity. Henschenins, in the 
AA.SS., mentions Angela as a disciple 
of Antonia, but places her among the 
Prsetermissi, March 24. Serafino Hazzi, 
Predicatori. Pio, Uomini Illustri per 
Santita, Feb. 4. 

St. Angela (7) de Merici, May 31, 
Jan. 27, Feb. 21, June 2. Called also 
St. Angela of Brescia. 1470 or 1474- 
1540. Founder of the Order of Ursu- 
lines. Represented with a ladder beside 
her. Born at Desenzano, a little town 
on the western shore of the lake of 
Garda, six or seven leagues from Brescia. 
Her father was Giovanni Merici; her 
mother, of the family of Biancosi, of 
Salo. They were in a comfortable and 
respectable position, and were exemplary 
and religious. They had several chil 
dren, of whom Angela was the youngest. 
Every evening they gathered their little 
flock together for religious reading, 
sometimes from the Bible, sometimes 
from accounts of the hermits and fathers 
of the desert. Angela and her sister, 
like most children of any imagination, 
dramatized these stories, and played at 
hermit life in their own room. They 
were still very young when both their 
parents died, and the two sisters went 
to live with their mother s brother, at 
Salo. Soon after they had taken up 
their abode in their uncle s house, both 
girls excited great consternation by 
their disappearance. After an anxious 
search, Biaucosi found the children in a 
cave, where they had withdrawn from 
the world, with the intention of living 
like hermits. Ho brought them home, 
but encouraged their taste for religious 
seclusion. It was, perhaps, at this time 



ST. ANGELA 



59 



tluit Angela, to avoid admiration and 
vanity, washed her spleudid golden hair 
\vith sooty water to dim its lustre. 
A ,Vhcn the girls were nearly grown up, 
the elder one died suddenly without thu 
sacraments. Angela feared she might 
liavc departed with some uuforgiven sin 
on her soul, and might bo eternally lost. 
She prayed and longed intensely to bo 
red of her sister s salvation. She 
grieved and fretted so distressingly that 
her uncle tried to divert her thoughts 
from the subject. One day ho sent her 
to his farm to look after the haymakers. 
On the way thither her agonized prayers 
\\vre answered : she saw a luminous 
cloud before her, and as she drew nearer 
and gazed intently, she discerned in it 
a countless multitude of angels and 
saints, in the midst of whom was her 
lost sister. Angela had not yet received 
her first communion, though she had 
long passed the age at which it has gene 
rally been customary among Catholics 
to observe that sacred rite. She now 
begged to be allowed to perform this 
duty, and from that time she became 
more devout and ascetic than ever. She 
enrolled herself in the Third or secular 
Order of St. Francis, fasted to excess, 
would have nothing of her own, and, in 
spite of her uncle s objections, turned all 
the furniture out of her room, ami slept 
on a mat with a stone for a pillow. 

After the^death of Biancosi, she re 
turned to Deseuzano, with some like- 
minded eompanions ; sho thought they 
should try to be of use to their fellow- 
iiiivs. Sho said that the scandals 
and abuses in society arose from the 
want of order in families ; the faults of 
1 ainilirs were generally traceable to the 
hers, and the reason there were so 
really Christian mothers was that 
girls wen: HO ba-lly brought up. This 
subject being much in her thoughts, one 
day, as sho was in the fields with her 
.&lt;ls, sin- stayed ti little apart from 
tln-m to pray, and, looking up, sa\v in 
tin- vault of heaven a brilliant ladder, 
on which an in Unite number of girls 
Were usri-nding two and t\vo, wearing 
beautiful crowns, and led by an 
"While sho watched and wondered, sho 
hard a voice say, "Courage, Angela! 



before you die you shall establish in 
Brescia a company of virgins like those 
you have seen here." The very next 
day she and her companions began to 
collect little girls and teach them ; at 
the same time, they visited and ministered 
to the sick, and sought out sinners. The 
devil, in the form of an angel, tempted 
her to vain-glory, but sho came safely 
through this trial. 

Sho joined a band of pilgrims going 
to the Holy Land. In the island of 
Candia, one of their resting-places, An 
gela became blind. Nevertheless, sho 
continued her journey, desiring to tread 
the ground her Lord had trod, and to 
visit the scenes of His life and death, 
although it pleased God to deny her the 
happiness of seeing them. Not until 
sho arrived again at Candia, on her 
return journey, did she recover her sight. 
Passing through Venice, she was invited 
by the Senate to take the direction of 
all the hospitals there, but she departed 
quietly, and returned to Brescia. Next 
year she went to Rome for the jubilee 
of 1. "&gt;-!. &gt;, and was presented to the Pope, 
Clement VII., by his chamberlain, Paul 
do la Pouille (di Apuglia ), who had 
made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem iu 
her company. The Pope, having heard 
much of her sanctity and miracles, re 
ceived her very graciously, and proposed 
to place her at the head of a house of 
hospital sisters, or that sho should remain 
in Rome and take charge of various 
houses devoted to works of mercy. Re 
membering her vision, she felt bound to 
decline the flattering offer, and explained 
to his Holiness the reason she must 
return to Brescia. She did so, but about 
1 1 &gt; years more elapsed before she founded 
her celebrated order. Meantime her 
fame was growing. In 152l&gt; tho Duke 
of Milan, of tho house of Sforza, came 
to Brescia, to beg her to adopt him as 
her spiritual son, and to take his do 
minions under her protection. Tho King 
of France, the Pope, and tho Kmperor, 
were fighting for his as well as other 
possessions, and the duke probably 
thought nothing but the intervention of 
a saint could restore his fortunes. The 
people iled from I5n-&gt;ei;i, and Angela 
sought an asylum iu Cremona. While 



GO 



VEX. ANGELA 



there, to mollify Heaven in favour of her 
afflicted country, she macerated her 
innocent body until her fastings and 
austerities brought her so near the gates 
of death that her recovery was deemed 
miraculous. 

In this same year, 152i&gt;, the Emperor, 
the King of France, and the Pope came 
to terms, and peace was restored. Angela 
then returned to Brescia, and while at 
tending Mass, she fell into an ecstasy, 
during which she was seen by several 
persons to be raised from the ground 
and to float in the air for a considerable 
time. Many revelations were made to 
her, and she told things she could not 
possibly have known by means less than 
supernatural. Notwithstanding all these 
favours of God, and her great progress 
in spiritual life, she still delayed to 
found the order. 

One night, in a vision, Christ up 
braided her with neglect of her voca 
tion. After this she felt she could no 
longer defer the execution of her 
plan. She stirred up her companions, 
and on Nov. 15, 1535, they went to 
the prisons, the hospitals, and the poorest 
and lowest places, and each collected 
into her own house all the young girls 
she could find, and began to instruct 
them. At first it was merely an asso 
ciation ; the associates did their work 
each under her parents roof. They 
could thus go, in their ordinary clothes, 
into houses that would have been closed 
against them had they worn the dis 
tinctive dress of a religious order, because 
at this time the doctrines of Luther were 
beginning to leaven society. Angela 
would not be called founder, nor allow 
the new order to be named after her; 
but as St. Ursula is the patron of all 
who devote themselves to the care and 
education of young women, she called 
her companions Ursuliues. She gave 
them a rule, but did not compel them 
to live together or to bring any dowry 
to the association. They only took 
simple vows. With the approbation of 
the bishop of Brescia, she was superior 
of her own community for about five 
years, but did not live to see the triumph 
of her order. She died on Jan. 27, 
154o, and was buried in the church of 



St. Afra, over which a miraculous light 
was seen by all the city for several 
nights. She was venerated as a saint 
by the inhabitants of Brescia long before 
her death, and multitudes resorted to her 
tomb to obtain favours of God through 
her intercession. 

Pope Paul III., soon after her death, 
gave the new order his sanction, and St. 
Charles Borromeo, the young archbishop 
of Milan, seeing its immense usefulness 
in Brescia, established a branch in Milan. 
In 1572 Gregory XIII. ra ised it to the 
rank of a religious order, under the rule 
of St. Augustine, and bound its members 
to the cloister. 

The Institute of the Ursuliues consists 
of several congregations, differing in 
minor matters, but all having for their 
object the education of girls. There 
were more than 300 houses of this order 
in France before the Revolution, one of 
the most famous being that in the Rue 
St. Jacques, Paris, where Madame de 
Maintenon was a boarder. 

St. Charles Borromeo busied himself 
about her canonization, but it was not 
accomplished in his lifetime. She was 
inscribed among the saints by Clement 
XIII. in 1768; beatified by Pius VL, 
and solemnly canonized, in 1807, by 
Pius VII. She is claimed as a member 
both by the Augustinian Order and the 
Third Order of St. Francis. Her narn 
is in the R.M., Jan. 27, the day of her 
death, and also May 31. The Bene 
dictines transfer her festival to June 2, 
and the Romano-Seraphic Order to Feb. 
21. (Appendix EM.) Her Life, pub 
lished by Duffy, in the Young Christian s 
Lilti ftry. Gueriu, Lcs Pctits Bollan* 
(Hub-*, xii. 

Ven. Angela (8) Mary Astorch, 
Sept. 2t&gt;. 10l2-17&gt;5. Born at Barce 
lona. Of a rich family, who opposed her 
vocation. She became a Capuchin nun 
in Barcelona, was appointed mistress of 
the novices in a new convent of her j 
order at Saragossa, and afterwards supe 
rior of another which she built at 
Murcia. She resigned that office, and 
devoted herself to her own salvation. 
Pius IX., in 1851, published a decree, 
pronouncing her possessed of heroic 
virtue. Leon, Aur&gt;l&lt; . 



B. ANGELINA COKUAUA 



01 



Yen. Angelina (1), Oct. &lt;. -fv n 7". 
Nun at Fontevruult, in Anjou. She was 
of ono of the noblo families of Anjou, 
and was consecrated to God, in the con 
vent of Fontevrault, by her parents, in 
her childhood. She had the most beau 
tiful voice that ever was heard in the 
choir there. A time came when sho had 
to choose whether sho would take the 
veil or leave the convent and live in 
the world. A dream decided her voca 
tion, and sho became a nun. Sho had 
paroxysms of love to God. She died 
young, about 1 1 7&lt; &gt;. Her biographer ex 
horts his readers to ask her intercession, 
but it does not appear that she has ever 
been honoured with public worship. 
Chambard, S&lt;i!nt$ Pcrsonnat/es (FAlUO*, 

St. Angelina (2). Hth century. 
Wife of St. Lazarus. The elder of two 
SS. Angelina, queens of Servia, Helen 
Angelina Militza, afterwards in re 
ligion Eri-HKMiA, or EUGENIA, was of tho 
illustrious family of the Xeemanides and 
related to Stephen Doushan. She mar 
ried Lazarus Grbljanovich, the last in 
dependent king of Servia. Ho came to 
tho throne in 1371. He was grandson 
of Stephen Doushan. They had eight 
children. Lazarus was killed, June 15, 
, in the battle of Kossowa, whore 
the Turks defeated tho Christian host 
with great slaughter, and made them 
selves masters of Servia and the neigh 
bouring states. Bajazet, the conqueror, 
gave the enslaved kingdom jointly to 
Stephen the son, and Wuk Brankovich 
the son-in-law, of Lazarus and Angelina, 
and took their daughter Olivera for one 
of his wives. Stephen found his position 
so difficult that ho withdrew for a time, 
with his mother and a younger brother, 
Vuk or Vlk, to tho monastery of liussi- 
kon, on Mount Athos, where tho monks 
republics were respected and left in 
peace by all tho belligerents. Ho was 
accused of plotting with tho Hungarians 
:ist liis over-lord, and Angelina had 
to go to r.ajuzet to convince him of her 
son s innocence. Angelina, Lazarus, and 
hen wero universally beloved in 
their lives, and were worshipped as saints 
after their death. La/arus was accounted 
a martyr. Two different monasteries, 
liavauitsch and Vrdnik, claim to have 



his body in their church, and pilgrims 
go to visit his shrine at each place. At 
Vrdnik lie appears wrapped in the em 
broidered mantle which ho is .said t 
have worn at Kossowa. Stephen died 
in 1427, and was buried at Belgrade. 
Mas Latrie says that a chrysobull of 
Juno H, 1305, in favour of the monastery 
of Kussikon, on Mount Athos, emanates 
from the nun Eugenia, her sou prince 
Stephen Lazarevich, and his brother 
Vuk. Among tho spoils of war in the 
Serai, at Constantinople, hangs tho 
armour of a son-in-law of Angelina and 
Lazarus, Milosch Kobilovich, who killed 
the Sultan Murad at Kossowa, and was 
taken by the guards and hewn in pieces. 
Martinov, Annux Ecclcsiasticus, June 15, 
July 1!&gt;. Hammer, Q&ekickte dc# Otto- 
manitcken JRficJtx, i. P. J. V. Safai-ik, 
Gfsch. der Scrbischen Litcratur. C. J. 
Jirecek, Gcsch. der Bulyaren. Meyer, 
Conversations Lexikon. Lebeau, B&lt;i* 
Kinjn r&lt;; xx., xxi. Mas Latrie, Trcsor de 
Okronologie. 

B. Angelina (3) Corbara, July 14, 
15, and Dec. 22, V. of Marsciauo. 1377- 
1435. Called in her own order LA B. 
MINISTUA, B. CONTESSA. Countess of 
Civitella and Montegiove. Patron of 
Foligno and of the family of Corbara. 
Founder of tho cloistered nuns of the 
Third Order of St. Francis, of tho con 
vent of St. Anna at Foligno, and of 15 
other houses of the same order in dif 
ferent parts of Italy. Represented in 
the habit of tho Third Order of St. 
Francis, holding a church in one hand, 
as a founder, and a flaming heart or a 
ball in tho other. 

Her father, Giacomo della Corbara, 
was of an ancient and powerful family, 
and very rich ; he was count of Corbara, 
Montemarta, Tisiguiauo, and several 
other castles and villages in the terri 
tories of Orvieto, Todi, and Perugia. 
Her mother was Countess Anna dc Bur- 
^ari, of tho family of the counts of 
Marsciano. Angelina was born at Monte 
Giovc, ono of her father s fortresses, 10 
miles from Orvioto. Sho was pious from 
her earliest childhood, and at the ago of 
1 2 dedicated herself to Christ with a 
vow of virginity. The first miracle re 
corded of her is that, ill her enthusiastic 



02 



B. ANGELINA CORBARA 



love of almsgiving, she took meat out 
of the pot in her father s kitchen to give 
to the poor. The cook was very angry, 
and complained that she gave her chari 
ties at the expense of his character, 
as he would be suspected of stealing ; 
whereupon the meat was miraculously 
increased to the original quantity. 

Her beauty, amiability, and connec 
tions soon brought numbers of suitors 
for her hand, among whom her parents 
chose the Count of Civitella, in the 
Abruzzi. In vain did Angelina beg to 
be allowed to remain unmarried. Her 
father threatened to kill her unless she 
consented to an alliance with the count. 
It was revealed to her in a vision that 
she might obey and still keep her vow. 
On the day of the marriage, she threw 
herself on her knees before a crucifix, 
and implored the Saviour to remember 
that she had dedicated herself to Him. 
An angel appeared and comforted her. 
Meantime the count, wondering where 
she was and what she was doing, looked 
through a crack in the door, and saw a 
young man talking to her. He broke 
into the room in a fury, and found her 
alone. He asked to whom she had been 
talking. Angelina then confessed all 
the circumstances. From that moment 
he considered himself privileged in 
having under his care a virgin espoused 
to Christ. He followed her example 
and advice in taking a vow of celibacy, 
and they lived devoutly at Civitella, 
spending their time in works of piety 
and mercy. 

There were at least six places in Italy 
called Civitella ; this was Civitella del 
Tronto, and in the time of Jacobilli was 
a royal free city with N.-J7 fires, a castle, 
and a tower. It gave to its possessor 
the title of count, as also did Montorio, 
another place belonging to Angelina s 
husband ; both were near Teraiio and 
Ascoli. 

The young couple lived happily at 
Civitella for a year, and then the count 
died, exhorting his wife to persevere in 
all her good intentions and good works. 
Angelina, who was now 17, joined the 
Third Order of St. Francis, with all the 
young women who were her companions 
or attendants. They travelled through 



various places in the Abruzzi, inspiring 
many persons with the wish to follow 
their saintly example. She was sum 
moned to appear before Ladislas, king 
of Naples (i:5Si&gt;-1414), accused of being 
an extravagant woman who had spent 
all her husband s property, and of being 
a vagabond and a heretic who dis 
approved of marriage and misled the 
ignorant. The king resolved to have 
her burnt alive ; he did not tell any one 
of his intention, but Angelina knew it. 
Before entering his presence, she went 
into the kitchen of his palace, and got 
one of the servants to fill the corner of 
her poor cloak with burning coals, which 
she carried to him. He saw that she 
was not afraid of fire, and that God 
would save her by a miracle if He chose 
her to do His work. Ladislas conversed 
with her, and was completely disarmed 
and won over to her side by her modest, 
fearless answers, her good sense, and un 
selfishness. He parted from her with 
demonstrations of respect and friendship. 
Her reputation for sanctity was esta 
blished by her raising from the dead a, 
young man of one of the principal 
families in the kingdom of Naples. So 
many persons wished to do her honour 
that she had to leave Naples by night to- 
avoid the distinction which was thrust 
upon her. Her influence led so many 
young girls of noble families to become- 
nuns, that their parents persuaded the 
king to banish her from his dominions. 

She returned to her father, who gave 
her his blessing and his consent to the 
lino of life she had taken. She sold all 
she had, and distributed the money to the 
poor. In August, 1, &gt;!&gt;."&gt;, she went with 
her companions to visit the sepulchre of 
St. Francis at Assisi, and to obtain the 
indulgence at the famous church of Santa 
Maria degli Angeli, a mile from Assisi. 
While there she was instructed in a 
vision to found a convent in Foligno, of 
Tertiario Claustralc, cloistered nuns of 
the Third Order. She went to Foliguo 
with her friends, and visited all the 
churches in the town, including that of 
St. Francis, where the body of St. Aug. In 
of Foligno was kept. Then, having ob 
tained a piece of ground from the lord 
of Foligno, and procured the consent of 



B. ANGELINA 



03 



the Pope, Angelina, in obedience to her 
vision, Imilt the monastery of St. Anna, 
for twelve nuns. It was finished in 1 ."&gt; . 7. 
In addition to the ordinary vows of ter- 
tiaries, they took one of perpetual cloister. 
It was the first convent of nuns of the 
Third Order, and Angelina was elected 
the first abbess. She would not have a 
larger number in her own convent, but 
so many holy women wished to adopt 
her new institution, that, in i:{ ( , ( . , she 
had to build another house, the church 
of which was consecrated in the name of 
ST. AONKS, V. M. She appointed 1 .. 
MAI;&lt;;AKI:T m DOMENICO of Foligno to be 
its first superior. Margaret would only 
accept this great responsibility and 
dignity on condition that Angelina 
should always pray for her and her 
charge. 

The nuns of the first convent were 
popularly called Contese t and the convent 
Santd Ann&lt;t &lt;t&lt; llr Cuntet9e t in honour of 
their founder. The nuns of the second 
convent were known as Margaritcle, and 
the convent La Margaritura. Margaret 
died there, in the odour of sanctity, 
Juno 13, 144H. 

Angelina built 1 &lt;&gt; monasteries of her 
order. Their names arc given in her 
Life, by Jacobilli. Besides B. MARGARET, 
Angelina had two disciples numbered 
among the " Blessed," namely, B. AXTOXIA 
!.oui:\ri: and 15. I AII.A OP FOLIGNO. 
After edifying her order and her country 
by her great virtues and mortifications, 
and after J^ years of success, Angelina 
died happily, in her first convent of St. 
Anna, at Foligno, on July 14, 14M5, in 
her .V. th year. The people immediately 
began to worship her. The bishop 
red all the canons, priests, and 
ks to accompany her blessed body to 
the church of the Minors of St. Francis, 
re she ha&lt;l sisk&lt;-d to be buried. The 
nuns of the Miif-fin-iliim bogged that the 
nil might pass by their monast&lt; rv. 
\\lien it did so, II. Margaret threw her 
self at the bishop s feet, and begged him 
to take the holy ahhess s ana. and 1 
tin- nuns with it, which lie did. Th 
l&lt;:i l saint was expos.-. I to public venera 
tion in the church of tho Franciscans for 
ttiree day s, during which, not with standing 
the extreme heat, the body rema: 



fresh and lifelike. Immense crowds 
pressed round tho bier. So great wa*; 
the desire to possess a relic of the beloved 
saint, that a guard of soldiers had to bo 
stationed on each side of her to prevent 
any pious theft. Many people went to 
pray in the chapel where her body was 
laid, and miracles were soon recorded. 
In 14."&gt;:i, 17 years after her death, 
the walls of her chapel sweated blood. 
There was universal consternation : some 
attributed the miracle to some fearful 
crime which was to be brought to light ; 
some to an impending calamity; and 
while all were in fear and distress, 
Angelina appeared to a devotee, and told 
him it was because the Christians had 
lost Constantinople. In 1402 Angelina, 
appeared to Era Giacomo Colombini, who 
had been praying to her to procure for 
him some alleviation of his great pain 
and infirmity. She promised to cure 
him, and ordered him to tell the father, 
guardian, and all the brothers, to move 
her body from under the arch, and put 
it on the altar in the same chapel. 
Accordingly, they opened tho cypress- 
wood chest, found the sacred body fresh 
and flexible, took it in procession round 
the town and through the seven churches 
of Foligno, and translated it to the place 
she had named. A second translation 
was made in ir&gt; _M. She was publicly 
venerated, particularly by the counts and 
countesses of Corbara, who considered 
her their advocate and protectress. The 
people of Foligno took her for one of 
their chief patrons, although without tho 
authority of the Church until 1825, 
when tiny petitioned Leo XII. to 
sanction, by a solemn canonization, the 
worship they already paid to her. i 
tin- Pope did by declaring her " Blessed." 
A.B.m. T&mcM(h8erapkic M&lt;nt., July i.". 
Jacobilli, Santi */*// T/////// ", S&lt;mti &lt;!/ 
Fnlitjiin, and Vltn &lt;l&gt;If&lt;i ll,-nt,i Any HH-I. 
Hclyot, OrtlwH Minm*ti&lt;jii 9. 

B. Angelina ( 4 ) of Spoleto, Juno 2&lt; , 
V. f 14:,(. O.S.F. Of a noble family 
of Spoleto. She became a nun in III" 
in tho Franciscan convent of St. Gregory, 
under her aunt, Francesca, who wasabbeifc 
there. The purity of Angelina, and tho 
fervour of her devotion, were so great 
that an angel brought her u ring, in 



04 



ST. ANGELINA 



token that Christ had married her in 
paradise. She died at the age of LV&gt;, 
having been a nun of extraordinary 
sanctity for 10 years. While she lay 
dead on the bier, a wicked woman tried 
to kiss her hand. Angelina would not 
submit to such contamination, but drew 
her hand away. Jacobilli, Santi &lt;!&lt;// 
Umbria. Mas Latrie, Tresnr. Papebroch, 
AA.SS., relates that he went to Spoleto, 
to satisfy himself that she was not a 
duplicate of one of the other ANGELAS or 
ANGELINAS of Umbria. He was told 
that innumerable miracles were wrought 
through her intercession, and he was 
shown her tomb and pictures in the 
church, representing some of her many 
cures. 

St. Angelina (5), July 30. -f c. 1510. 
Queen of Servia, or despotess of Eascia. 
Wife of St. Stephen the Blind. Mother 
of SS. George (Jan. 18) and John (Dec. 
10), called despots of Kascia, now Novi- 
Bazar or Yeni-Bazar, the capital of 
Servia. Saverstia Angelina was 
descended from the imperial family of 
the Comneni, and was the daughter of 
George Arianita Topia Golem, lord of 
Durazzo and Valona, and one of the 
greatest nobles of Southern Albania. 
He was a Eoman Catholic, and to him 
Pope Eugenius IV. committed the banner 
of the Church, to carry it against the 
Turks. Angelina grew up in very 
troublous times. She was a child when, 
in 144!-!, the Christians were defeated in 
the second great battle of Kossowa. 
Under the tyranny and cruelty of the 
Turks, many of the Albanians became 
Mohammedans ; many emigrated to 
Hungary ; and some of the chief families, 
holding obstinately to the Greek or to 
the Koman Church, were exterminated 
by the conquerors. Stephen, a great- 
grandson of St. Lazar and of the elder 
ST. ANGELINA OF SEHVIA, was now despot 
of Ixascia. He had been blinded in his 
youth by the Turks, and driven from 
his poor remnant of a kingdom by his 
brother, but had succeeded, for the second 
time, to the throne, and been hailed by 
the Serbs as their prince. Ho was living 
on his own estates in Albania when, 
about 1 -I ll i, he married Angelina. They 
continued to live in Albania for some 



time, until, the Turks becoming more 
and more of a scourge, they withdrew to 
Kupinik, now Sirmisch, on the Save, 
where, according to Martinov, they and 
their sons died and were buried ; the 
date of Stephen s death is given by this 
account as 1477. Schafarik, Serbischen 
Literatur, however, says they went to 
Italy in 14ii7, apparently, among the 
; In, nun Albanians who on the death in 
that year of Angelina s brother-in-law, 
George Castriota (Scantier Beg), their 
champion against the Turks migrated 
to the kingdom of Naples, and founded a 
colony at San Demetrio. Here Stephen 
died about 1481. Angelina then went 
with her sous to Transylvania, and after 
wards returned to Kupiuik. Both her 
sons bore the title of despot, and she was 
called deymtisKa. In 1400" the two 
brothers used the formula: "Nos Georyhi* 
reyni Hascise despotus et Johannes f rater 
ejusdem caniulis." In 1490 George be 
came a monk, taking the name of Maxim, 
and afterwards bishop and archbishop. 
He resigned these dignities, and retired 
to the monastery of Krusedol, which he 
had built; and there he died, Jan. is, 
1510. His mother survived him only a 
few days. At Krusedol the bodies of the 
four saints, Stephen, Angelina, George, 
and John, were preserved as fresh as in 
their lives until 1710, when the Turks 
plundered the monastery, and destroyed 
the holy relics. Angelina was so good 
and charitable that the Servians to this 
day speak of her with affection as 
"Mother Angelina." Several MSS., 
now in the cloisters of Sirmia, belonged 
to her collection, and some contain notes 
made by her own hand. She was a nun 
during the last years of her life, aud was 
called THEODORA. The life of her sou, 
George Maxim, is said to bo preserved 
in a book of legends at Krusedol. Be 
sides her two sons, she had a daughter, 
Mary, who married at Innspruck, in 1 4s, ), 
Boniface IV. Paleologus, Marquis of 
Moutfcrrat. Martinov, Annus Ecclex., 
July o&lt;&gt;, Oct. t, Dec. 10, Jan. is. 
Hammer, Otmanischen Reich. Lebeau, 
xx., xxi. Meyer, Conurrxntiimx L&lt;-xi- 
/,&lt;&gt;//. Schafarick, ,SV/7,/&gt;r//r// Lit -ratitr. 
C 1 . J. Jirecek, Gexchichte der Lnl&lt;i,-&lt; . 
Lenormant, L&lt;i Grande Grccc. 



ST. ANNA 



65 



Ven. Angilburga, or E\r;iu:ri;, : . 
Jan. 11 . "( . !."&gt;. Empress. Daughter 
of Louis, king of Germany. Wife of 
Louis II., Emperor. Although innocent, 
sh. \\as divorced. She lived in the 
convent of the Resurrection, which she 
had founded at Placentia. On the 
Emperor s death she took the veil, and 
ia time became abbess. After a few 
years she was sent to the convent of St. 
Julia, at Brescia, over which she pre 
sided for many years. Sho died at a 
great ago. Bucelinus. 

St. Angre, May 14, V. M. Honoured 
at Apt, in Provence. French Mdit. 

St. Ania, May 28 (ANIAS, AMA), M. 
at Rome. AA.SS. 

St. Animais, M., with ANNA &lt; 7 . 

St. Animida, or AMIDA, July 2, M. 
at Rome or in Mesopotamia. Boll., 
AA.SS. 

St. Anna (1), Oct. :J. Called in our 
IJil do HANNAH, and by Mgr. Guerin STE. 
ANSI: i Mi. ASK. Wife of Elkanah, and 
mother of the prophet Samuel, who was 
born, B.C. 1105, in answer to her fervent 
prayers for a son, accompanied by a vow 
to dedicate him to God. Her hymn 
. 1 Sara, ii. 1-1 oj has strong points of 
resemblance with that of the B. V. MARY 
&lt; St. Luke i. 4&lt;J-."&gt;.")j, and her mention of 
the Lord s "anointed," with which it 
ends, is regarded as the first instance in 
which the Christ is expressly so called 
in the Scriptures. On this account she 
is considered a prophetess. In fulfil 
ment of her vow, she placed her son 
in the tabernacle, and left him with 
the judge and prophet Eli. With 
maternal tenderness she made him a 
little coat each year, and took it to him 
when she and her husband went from 
their homo at Ramathaim-Zophim to 
make their annual offering. After 
.Samuel, she had three sons and two 
daughters. She is commemorated in 
the Greek Church, Oct. 3. All that is 
known of her is in the first and second 
chapters of the First Book of Samuel. 
Jso Smith s l) , t -l iunnrii &lt;&gt;/ /// 7&gt; ///,- 
and Calmet s Dii-t n-mu // / /// /;///-. 

St. Anna (- &gt;, Feb. ;;, Sept. J, is 

represented holding the tables of tin 
Jewish Law, to denote that she lived 
blamelessly. She was a prophetess, 



daughter of Phamiel, of the tribe of 
A srr. At the age of eighty-four she 
was a widow who spent her time in the 
temple, and " served God with fastings 
and prayers night and day." When the 
Infant Jesus was presented there, she 
recognised in Him the expected Messiah. 
She is the earliest of the New Testament 
saints. Her name is in the 11. M., Sept. 1. 
Ughelli and the Greek Meneas honour 
her with St. Simeon, Feb. 3. The Feast 
of the Purification was anciently called, 
in the East, the Feast of the Meeting, 
i.e. of St. Simeon and St. Anna, with the 
Christ, in the Temple, at the Presenta 
tion. This feast is mentioned in the 
Pilgrimage of St. Silvia, late in the 4th 
century ; but at that early date it was 
probably celebrated with so much honour 
only at Jerusalem, whence the custom 
of its solemnization extended to other 
countries. Richard et Giraud, 1M//0- 
tli^itw Sacree. St. Luke ii. 36-38. R.M. 
St. Anna (3), July 26 (ANN, ANNE). 
t A.I). 1. Mother of the B. V. MARY. 
Patron of two places called Anuaberg, 
one in Brunswick, the other in Misuia ; 
of Madrid, which adopted her in a pesti 
lence in l.";97 ; of Apt, Brittany, Bruns 
wick, and Ourcamp ; of the Counts of 
Schlick, and the Counts of Haiuault ; of 
the cathedral of the Canaries ; of mar 
ried people ; takes the place of Juno 
Lucina as patron of confinements; is 
called in Southern Italy / vecchia potcnte 
( thu powerful old woman); pregnant 
women who place themselves under her 
special protection wear an apron or 
some other article of a brilliant emerald 
green. Sho is also patron of makers 
and sellers of lace ; makers and sellers 
of linen cloth ; broom- makers ; house 
keepers ; grooms ; stable- boys ; dealers 
iu. old clothes ; carpenters ; cabinet 
makers ; turners ; inlayers of wood ; and 
all workers in hard wood. St. Gomer 
is patron of workers in soft wood. 
According to Cahier, the reason for 
Anna being adopted patron of workers 
in wood is that no one was received to 
the rank of master in any guild or cor 
poration of tradesmen until ho had made 
a masterpiece. In the 10th and 17th 
centuries the tabernacle was a very im 
portant part of the ornamentation of an 

F 



C6 



ST. ANNA 



altar, and a wood-worker generally 
showed his greatest skill in its construc 
tion. St. Anna was considered to have 
made the first tabernacle, namely, the 
Virgin Mary. A composition, called in 
the workshops " the brains of St. Anna," 
was the great resource for hiding certain 
defects in the wood. It consisted of a 
strong glue mixed with sawdust of the 
defective wood, and was cleverly used 
to fill up cavities. 

Azevedos counts SS. Joachim and 
Anna among the " Advocates," or " AUXI 
LIARY SAINTS." 

Pictures or drawings of Anna have 
been found in the catacombs : these and 
other early representations depict her 
with her hands stretched out in prayer ; 
near her a dove, bearing a ring or a 
crown in its beak. In mediaeval art she 
holds a book, and generally appears to 
be teaching the Virgin Mary to read, 
and sometimes pointing to the words, 
" Radix Jesse floruit." In some of these 
pictures the Virgin Mary, although she 
appears as a child sitting on her mother s 
lap, holds the Infant Christ. St. Anna 
is sometimes the centre figure of a com 
plicated picture of the relatives of our 
Saviour. Sometimes she appears meet 
ing and kissing St. Joachim at the 
Golden Gate, bearing a lily, on the 
flower of which is represented the face 
of the Virgin Mary. 

According to the Golden L&lt; &lt;(&lt;-n&lt;l, 
Pcrfetto Leggendario, etc., she was the 
daughter of Stolano, also called Gazarius, 
of the house of Juda, and her mother 
was Emerentia. They had another 
daughter, Hysmerye, who had a daughter, 
ST. ELIZABETH, mother of St. John the 
Baptist, and a son, Elynd, father of 
Emynen, of whom came " S. Servace 
whoso bodye lyeth in Mastreyght upon 
ye ryver of Ye Mase." 

St. Anna was married three times, 
and by each marriage she had a daughter 
named Mary. Her first husband was 
Joachim, father of the B. V. Mary, " who 
chylded our lorde Jhesu cryste." Joa 
chim was of Nazareth ; Anna was of 
Bethlehem, and of the tribe of Juda. 
They were rich. They divided their 
goods into three parts : one they gave 
to the temple and its servants, one to 



pilgrims and the poor, and the third 
part they spent on themselves and their 
servants. When they had been married 
twenty years, and had long sorrowed 
because they had no child, they made a 
vow that if God would give them one, 
they would dedicate it to His service. At 
the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple, 
St. Joachim went with his friends, to 
Jerusalem, as usual, to make his offering. 
The high priest scornfully rejected it, 
saying that a man who, inasmuch as ho 
had no children, was evidently under 
the displeasure of God, ought not to pre 
sume to offer gifts at the altar. Joachim 
went away sorrowful and confused. In 
stead of returning to Anna, he went to 
his herdsmen and stayed some time with 
them, until he was comforted in a vision 
by an angel, who told him his prayers and 
alms were accepted before God, and that 
Anna should have a daughter named 
Mary. She was to be brought up in the 
temple, and of her should be born a 
great Lord, through whom salvation 
should come to all people. The angel 
said, " By this sign thou shalt know that 
the vision is from the Lord : when thou 
shalt come to the Golden Gate of Jeru 
salem, thou shalt meet Anna thy wife." 
Meantime, Anna remained sorrowfully 
at home. One day, as she sat under a 
laurel in her garden watching a bird 
bringing food to its little ones in the 
nest, she said to herself, " Every wife 
has children except me ; the very birds 
in the trees have their children, but I 
have none." Then she heard her maid, 
on the other side of the bushes, deriding 
her because of her barrenness. But now 
the same angel who had appeared to 
Joachim visited her in a dream, promised 
her a child, and relieved her anxiety 
about her husband s prolonged absence 
by telling her she should find him at 
the Golden Gate. They both obeyed 
the heavenly messenger, and went to 
Jerusalem. There, at the Golden Gate, 
they met. The next year Anna had a 
daughter, according to the promise of 
the angel ; and they called her Mary, as 
he had commanded. When Mary was 
three years old, they brought her to the 
temple, with offerings. There were fifteen 
steps up the temple, and the child, who 



ST. ANNA 



67 



had never yet walked, ran up to the top 
of the flight without assistance. When 
Joachim and Anna had made their offer 
ing, they left Mary in tin- temple with 
the other virgins, and returned home. 
Mary grew in holiness daily, and had 
visions from God. 

Anna was thirty-six years old when 
Joachim died. She then married ( 1 h&gt;pa&lt;. 
brother of St. Joseph the carpenter, and 
had, by him, a daughter Mary, whomarri&lt; -d 
AlpluunK and had four sons James the 
Less, Judas Thaddeus, Simon Zelotes, 
and Joseph the Just. After the death 
of Clopas, Anna took, as her third hus- 
hand, Salome, and had another daughter, 
Mary Salome, who married Zebedee, and 
was the mother of the two apostles, 
SS. James the More and John the 
Evangelist. Anna lived until our Lord 
Christ was one year old. In the time 
of Octavian her soul was carried to 
Abraham s bosom; at the ascension of 
Christ it was carried to heaven, where 
she has a very honourable place, being 
one of the saints who enjoy the glory of 
the great God. 

Another legend, giving miraculous 
birth and ancient lineage to Anna, is to 
bo found among those collected by Le 
Roux de Lincy, who derives it from a 
metrical IJible of the i:5th century. It 
is as follows: 

A thousand years after the fall of 

m, God transported the tree of life 

into the garden of St. Abraham, and 

sent an angel to inform the patriarch 

that on this tree the Son of God should 

: ucilit -d, that the flower of the tree 

would give birth to a knight who would 

bring into the world, without the assist- 

of any woman, a virgin, whom 

i would choose for His mother. 

Abraham had a daughter who breathed 

tin- perfume of the tree, and thereby 

lx-r;une in; / //// TllO Je\VS condemned 
to he burned 1&lt; death. She went 
into the tire, and proved her innoc. 
by remaining unhurt in the midst of it. 
All the flames then changed into How- 
then- was not a coal or a brand bnt 

irae a lily or a rose. Uy-and-by she 

birth to a son, who grew up a 

valiant knight, and rose t&lt;&gt; be king, and 

:.tually Kmp ror. His name W;H 



Fanonel. He was the possessor of the 
Tree of Life, and although he did not 
thoroughly understand all its properties, 
when sick or wounded persons came to 
him for help, he cut a fruit from tho 
tree, divided it in several pieces, and 
distributed them to the sufferers, who 
were thereby cured of whatever disc:, 
or injuries they had. When he cut tho 
fruit ho always wiped tho knife on his 
thigh, until at last the juice of the fruit 
got into tho thigh, which swelled and 
gave him some trouble and anxiety. All 
the physicians of the country tried their 
skill in vain. The thigh grew bigger 
every day for nine months, and then 
produced the prettiest little ////!/.//// 
that ever was seen. That was " Sninl 
An in- qiu- Dim &lt;iu,m /"///." The Emperor 
was much ashamed of the slur that thus 
fell on his character. He called a knight, 
who was his confidential attendant, and 
told him to take tho child into tho 
middle of a forest and kill her. The 
knight proceeded to ol&gt;ey. Just as he 
was going to strike his victim, a dove 
appeared from heaven, saying, " Knight, 
do not kill this child ; for of her shall be 
born a virgin whom God will choose for 
His mother." So he put the babo into a 
swan s nest and left her. A stag brought 
her food, and, if she cried, gave her 
flowers to comfort her. About ten years 
after this, Fanouel one day went hunting 
in the wood, and followed the very stag 
that had adopted the deserted child. 
The stag took refugo under the swan s 
nest, where the little girl still lived. 
The Emperor was astonished to find a 
beautiful yonng lady, ten years of age, 
in a swan s nest, and said to her, " My 
beauty, who are you?" To which tho 
wise child replied, " Sire, I am your 
daughter. 1 He found she knew tho 
whole story, so ho took her to court and 
married her to Joachim, a knight of his 
empire. Of this marriage was born the 
Blessed Virgin Mary. 

A legend of Anna, told by Dr. Mant, 
and said to be derived from tho writings 
of Ilippolvtus tho martyr, is that sin- 
was tho youngest of three daughters of 
Matthan tho priest, and Mary his wile. 
Tl.e two elder sisters, Mary and &gt; 
married in Ut-thk-hem. Mary had a 



B. AXXA 



daughter, Salome the midwife ; Sobe was 
the mother of St. Elizabeth, mother of 
St. John the Baptist ; Anna, the youngest, 
married in Galilee, and brought forth 
Mary, the mother of Jesus. 

Baillet, F/rx /// * Snint*, " St. Joachim," 
March 20, says that wo know from St. 
Gregory of Nyssa and other reliable 
writers, that these traditions come to us 
from apocryphal histories of St. Mary, 
containing divers superstitions. 

Nothing is known with certainty of 
the father of the B. V. Mary, except that 
he was of the house of David. If the 
genealogy given by St. Luke is that of 
Mary, then her father was Heli. 

St. Gregory XIII., by a brief dated 
1584, commanded a double feast to be 
celebrated in honour of St. Anna, through 
out all Christendom. The worship of 
St. Joachim was not established by 
authority in the Latin Church until 
1&lt;;22, under Gregory XV. 

B. Anna (4), March 5, V. Time of 
the Apostles. Wife of St. Conon, bishop 
of Bida or Bidaua, in Isauria, who con 
verted his father and mother, Nestor and 
Nada, to the Christian faith. Anne, 
together with Nestor, is, by the Greek 
Church, honoured among the martyrs. 
Conon is commemorated March 5. Pape- 
broch and Henschcnius are uncertain as 
to Anna s right to the honours of saint- 
ship. Boll., AAJSS. 

St. Anna (5), Oct. 22. 2nd or 3rd 
century. Was converted by seeing the 
constancy under torture of St. Alexander, 
M., bishop of a place unknown, and was 
put to death with him, Heraclius a 
soldier, and SS. THEODOTA (2) and GLI- 
CERIA (2). ST. ELIZABETH (2) is com 
memorated with them, but is supposed 
to have been martyred at another place 
and time. A church in their honour 
was built at Constantinople. They are 
mentioned in the Mcnoloyy of JJasii, but 
Greek saints were received with caution 
by the Western Church, because many 
schismatics were honoured among them. 
Benjamin Bossue, in Boll., AA.SS., Oct. 
22, ix. 

St. Anna (0), Nov. 20, V. M. c. 343, 
with BAHUTA. 

St. Anna (7), March 2(5, M. c. 370. 
One of the earliest Christians among the 



Goths on the Danube. She was with five 
other women and twenty men in a church 
which was burned by Jungerich, king 
of the Goths, in the time ot the Emperors 
Valens and Gratian : the names of the 
other women were ALLAS or HALAS, PARIS 
or BAKIS or BAKKA, Moiro or MAMICA, 
VIRGO or Vico, and ANIMAIS. Boll., 
AAJ3S. 

St. Anna (8), Oct. 2 or 2S, or May 4, 
M. at Jerusalem, in the 4th century. 
Patron of Ancona. Went with her son, 
St. Cyriacus, bishop and martyr, to visit 
the holy places. They were arrested by 
order of Julian the apostate, hung up by 
her hair, and burned with lamps ; she 
died under the torture. Her body was 
translated to Ancona by the Empress B. 
GALLA PLACIDIA, in the following cen 
tury. Anna is mentioned in the Greek 
and Ethiopian calendars. Her history 
is only known from the fabulous Act* of 
her son. As a fact, there was no general 
persecution of Christians under Julian, 
although there doubtless were cases 
where the malice or covetousness of 
those in power, or special provocation 
on the part of certain Christians, led to 
the oppression or murder of individuals. 
Boll., AA.SS. GynccdBiiw. 

St. Anna (i). 5th or (&gt;th century. 
Patrpn of the church of East Looe, in 
Cornwall. Daughter of the Prince of 
Glamorgan. Married Amwyn, or Amuon 
the Black, prince of Bro-Weroc, in Brit 
tany, i.e. the country about Vannes which 
was colonized from Britain. SS. Padarn, 
Malo, and Magloire were of the same 
illustrious Welsh stock. Anna was sister 
of GWEN JULITTA and mother of St. 
Samson, bishop of Dol, in Brittany, who 
was born about 520. A holy well in 
the churchyard of Whitstone, in Corn 
wall, bears her name. Her worship in 
England, at all events is much older 
than that of ST. ANNA (3), mother of the 
B. V. MARY. Rev. S. Bariug Gould, Book 
of the West. Stadler. Butler. 

St. Anna (10), Nov. 2S. A young 
widow of high rank dwelling in Con 
stantinople towards tho middle of the 
Sth century. Disciple and spiritual 
daughter of St. Stephen of Mount St. 
Auxentius, also called St. Stephen the 
Younger, to distinguish him from two 



ST. ANNA 



contemporaries. Her real name is un 
known. She took that of Anna on 
becoming a nun in a convent at the foot 
of the mountain on which St. Stephen 
lived as a hermit, after ho had been per 
secuted by the iconoclasts at Constanti 
nople. In 7.~&gt;4, refusing to support a 
false accusation against Stephen, she was 
cruelly scourged by order of the Emperor 
Constantino Copronymus, and put in 
prison at Constantinople, where she soon 
died, in consequence of the ill usage she 
received. She is mentioned by Surius 
in the life of St. Stephen, Oct. 28. The 
Bollandists promise more information 
when their calendar comes down to her 
day. This is perhaps the saint called 
Anna Greca by Gut-nebault, who says she 
was an abbess of the Order of the Ace- 
metes, and that she is represented hold 
ing a statuette, doubtless to denote that 
she adhered to the use of holy images, 
notwithstanding the persecution of the 
iconoclasts. 

St. Anna ( 1 1 ) Euphemian, Oct. 29. 
8th and beginning of \nh century. A 
native of Constantinople. After the 
death of her husband and children, she 
gave all her property to the poor, and, 
disguised as a man, obtained admission 
to a monastery on Mount Olympus, where 
she lived several years, under the name 
of Euphemian. She was much perse 
cuted by a fellow-monk, changed her 
residence several times, and died a re 
cluse at Constantinople. Her story, from 
the Mcnoas of the Greek Church, is 
given at considerable length, with notes, 
by the Bollandists, who do not seem to 
think it ivlkhlr. AA.SS. 
T St Anna (12), July 2:;. f c - 918 - 
V. of Leucada, or Lencata, a promontory 
&lt;&lt;i K{ iius, or lUthynia. She was of noble 
birth. After the death of her parents, 
the Kmjuior liasil, the Macedonian, 
desired her to accept a husband of his 
choosing; but she chose rather to kud 
iibato ascetic life. She was about 
seventy-eight years of age when she died. 
Perier, in .!/!.&gt; v 

St. Anna (13). Grand-princess of 
Kuia. ! r,:;-ini 1. There are many con 
tradictions in tin: accounts of this prin- 
. and it is doubtful whether she 
should be placed among the saints. 



More information regarding her is to 
be found in tho histories cited at the 
end of this article. 

Anna was born, of wicked parents, at 
Constantinople in 1H&gt;:5, a few days before 
the death of her father, Romanus II., 
Emperor of the East. Her elder sister, 
Theophano, married Otho II., king of 
Germany and Emperor of the West (see 
ADELAIDE (3)). Romanus II. was suc 
ceeded by his sons, l&gt;asil II. and Con 
stantino VIII., who reigned together. 
In their time Anna married, with con 
siderable repugnance, St. Vladimir (mon 
arch of Russia, grandson of ST. OLGA), 
to make peace between tho Greek empire 
and their dangerous neighbours, and 
still more with the object of winning 
him and his immense country over to 
the Christian faith. As a condition of 
his marriage, he put away his other 
wives, and deposed his god Perune. He 
was threatened with blindness, and Anna 
promised him that his sight should be 
restored if he would be baptized. Ho 
complied, taking the name of l&gt;asil, and 
was immediately cured. He then built 
a church in Kief, dedicated it in the 
name of St. Basil, and enforced his new 
religion with all the determination he 
had previously shown in other matters. 
His life, after baptism, was as strict as 
it had before been dissolute. He died 
lOlo. Anna died lull. He is called 
Isapostolos, and has also been called the 
New Solomon, not from his wisdom, but 
from the great number of his wives. He 
was father of Yaroslav, whoso wife was 
ST. ANNA (14). Lebeau, Hintoirc du 13ax 
lrr, xvi. 57, etc. Martinov, Grxco- 
. Cdh-ndar. Karamsin, Hiutoire de 
/e, i. 207-283. 

St. Anna (14), Grand-princess of 
Russia, Feb. lo, and, with her son St. 
Vladimir, Oct. 4 (!NGAUDAS, INGEBIOUG, 
I\I.K,I.I;DA, IKENE). She was daughter 
of Olaf Skoetkouung, king of Sweden, 
who gave her for dowry tho town of 
Aldeigaburg, or Old Ladoga. She took 
the name of Irene at her baptism, and 
that of Anna with the monastic habit, 
shortly before her death. She was tho 
wife of Yaroslav the Groat, son of the 
first St. Vladimir and father of the second, 
who, in l&lt;&gt;i; () succeeded his father as 



ST. ANNA 



Grand-prince of all the Eussias, and 
reigned from the Baltic to Asia, and to 
Hungary and Dacia. He was far more 
enlightened than his predecessors, and 
than many of his successors for some 
generations. He caused the Bible to bo 
translated into the Slavonian tongue, 
and transcribed some copies with his 
own hand; he founded many schools, 
but his great glory was the code of laws 
he enacted. He built the church of St. 
Sophia, at Kief, one of the oldest in 
Eussia. That of St. Sophia, at Novgorod, 
was built by the second St. Vladimir ; 
it is the oldest building in Novgorod, 
and one of the three oldest churches in 
Eussia. In it the founder and his 
mother, St. Anna, lie buried. The date 
of Anna s death, 1&lt;)50, is still to be seen 
on her tomb. She was the first of the 
Eussian princesses to take the religious 
veil on the approach of death, a custom 
which afterwards became general. Yaro- 
slav and Anna had six sons, one of whom 
was St. Vladimir II., and one is said to 
have married a daughter of Harold God- 
wiusson of England. Anna had three 
daughters : Elizabeth, queen of Norway ; 
Anna or Annte, queen of France ; and 
Anastasia, or Agmunda, who married 
Andrew I., king of Hungary ; perhaps 
also a fourth daughter, Agatha, who 
married the English Prince Eadward 
Aethling, and was mother of Edgar 
Atholing and ST. MAHGAKET, queen of 
Scotland. Yaroslav died in 1054, and 
was buried at Kief. 

These accounts of these Eussian prin 
cesses are chiefly taken from Karamsiu, 
Ilixtoirc, &lt;!&lt; Eusisie. S. Anna Ingigerda 
is also mentioned by Mailath, titamint- 
afd dcr Arpadi ii ; Martinov, Slav. Calen 
dar; Snorri Sturlusson, Kin &lt;js of Norway; 
Neale, Holy Eastern CJiun-l/. 

St. Anna (15), daughter of the 
Emperor Eomanus. Wife of the Eus 
sian Prince St. Vladimir II. ( Yarosla- 
vitchj, son of ST. ANNA (14). Mother 
of the Grand-prince St. Mistislav the 
Brave, who feared no person or thing, 
but God only. He defended Novgorod 
against Andrew of Sousdalia, and was 
beloved all over Eussia. Mistislav, his 
father St. Vladimir, his mother, and 
grandmother are buried in the church of 



St. Sophia at Novgorod, which Vladimir 
Yaroslavich built on the site of the 
wooden church of the year 100U : the 
stone church was built by Greek archi 
tects, and is preserved, with its gilt 
domes, in all its grandeur, unspoilt by 
wars or storms. St. MiBtislav s dead 
hand, quite black, protrudes from under 
the cloth which covers his body, and is 
exposed for the kisses of the faithful. 
Chester s RiiHxta, and the authorities for 
the other Eussian saints. 

B. Anna (16) Michieli Giustini- 
ani, Nov. 21. O.S.B. Daughter of 
Vitale Michieli, doge of Venice (1156- 
1172J, the last doge who was elected by 
the people, the seventeenth who was vio 
lently dethroned, and the sixth who was 
murdered in a riot. In 117&lt;&gt; there was 
war between the state of Venice and the 
empire of Constantinople. At the same 
time, the Emperor had a personal dis 
like to and quarrel with the Giustiuiani, 
one of the most ancient and wealthiest 
of the Venetian noble families, and much 
beloved by all classes in the city. They 
therefore took up the national quarrel 
with family pride as well as political 
and patriotic ardour, contributing a large 
contingent of ships and men, and desir 
ing to make good all loss that might 
accrue to the Eepublic from the war. 
The doge led the expedition, and every 
man of the Giustiniaui family went with 
him. At first the Venetians had some 
successes, but after suffering greatly 
from the treachery of the Greeks, they 
were attacked by the plague. Some of 
the Giustiniani had been killed in skir 
mishes, and all the rest were among the 
victims of the pestilence. About two years 
from the time he had set forth so gallantly, 
Vitale returned home, bringing back 
only seventeen of the hundred ships he 
had taken out. The people were furious 
with the doge, and threw upon him the 
whole blame of the ill success of the 
expedition, and the destruction of a 
family so popular among them. The 
Emperor triumphed in the extermina 
tion of the hated race, but Vitalo knew 
there was one scion of the family, a 
certain brother Niccolo, who, although 
accounted dead to the world, was still 
living in the monastery of S. Niccolo 



B. ANNA 



71 



lel Lido. Through tins man he re 
solved to revive the great aud popular 
family so tragically cut off, and applied 
to Pope Alexander III. for permission to 
marry his o\vn daughter to Xiccolo 
&lt;;iustiniani. Tin- Pope freed Xiccolo 
from his monastic vows, and commanded 
him to restore his family to its proper 
place in Venice by marrying Anna 
Michieli. It soon became evident that 
the ships which had returned had brought 
the plague witli them; hundreds of 
us died within a few days. Terror 
reigned. The fickle populace again laid 
all the fault on their doge, and mur 
dered him in a tumult. As soon as 
they had done it, they repented, and 
remembered how good he had been. 
Xiccolo and Anna spent many years to 
gether, rich in this world s goods, and 
richer in good deeds. They had six 
sous and three daughters. Eventually 
Xiccolo returned to his monastery, and 
Anna went to live in the magnificent 
nunnery of St. Adrian, which she had 
built at Aniiauo; and there she spout 
the rest of her life in fastings, prayers, 
and good works. The pictures of Nic- 
colo and Anna are kept with great vene 
ration in the church of St. Nicholas, in 
token of their sanctity. Many miracles 
have been wrought l&gt;y both saints. Life 
!&gt;. L"i -i /c~. " Giuatiniani, their descen 
dant, who died Jan. 8, 1455, written by 
Bernardo Giustiuiani, and given in the 
AA.tiS.1 Jan. 8. The story is told with 
many interesting details by Lebeau, 
in &gt;l I In* Kinjtti-f, xix., xx. of the 
old edition, xvi., xvii. of the new ( 18-"&gt;: ). 



Ut.,,-&lt;i of Venice, " lluglishod " by \V. 
Slmte i MIL i. Wion, Liynum Vilx, wh&lt; 
calls Anna v&gt; Duchess of the Venetians." 
Mas Latrie, 7 /vW. Bucelinus, M- //. 
/&gt; /(., Nov. 21. Light is thrown on the 
customs of Venice at the time, aud the 
status of the families of Michieli and 
Giustiniani hy Molmouti, Storin ili 
\ &lt;ii ::i i K&gt;ll&lt;i \ i(&lt;i / ,-, ///&lt;/. The Life of 
Anna is promised by the Bollandists 
when they com*- t i her &lt;l;iv. 

B. Anna i 17 i, Mtfob 8. t |L 1L 
Of the noble family of Frankeuhof. n. 
Cistercian nun at Srefeld ; succeeded l . 
1 i DE&lt; \ us abbess. In 1241 Conrad of 



"\Yiiiterstcttiii built the nunnery of 
1 aindt, near the monastery of Weiugar- 
ten, in the ancient diocese of Constance, 
and thither Anna moved as abbess. 
She died 124i, and was succeeded by 
Ermengard, daughter of the founder. 
Buceliuus, JL ti. Ben. Migne, Di- /. des 
Alilmiji-x. Moustier, Gynecseum. The 
accounts of the situation, etc., of the 
nunneries do not quite agree. 
B. Anna (18), AMICIA. 
St. Anna &lt; li ), Duchess of Silesia, 
bom ftt Prague, 1204. f 1246. Daughter 
of Preuiysi Ottokar I., first king of 
Bohemia ( 1 1 ( JS-12:!&lt;&gt; ), by his second 
wife, Constance of Hungary. ST. AGNES 
nr 1 &gt;OHEMIA was her sister, ST. ELIZABETH 
OF Hi MjAHY her cousin, ST. ABDELA her 
half-sister, ST. HEDWIG her mother-in- 
law. Anna married, in 1210, Henry II., 
the pious duke of Silesia ; he was killed 
at Legnitz, 1241, in a great battle 
against the Tartars, where, although the 
Christians were defeated, overpowered 
by numbers, they made such a good 
fight against the heathens, and inflicted 
on them such heavy loss, that the tide of 
their invasion was effectually arrested. 
St. Anna, St. Hedwig, and all the nuns 
of Trebnitz were in the fortress of 
Chrosna when the battle was fought. 
Anna buried her husband in the Fran 
ciscan convent which he had begun to 
build at Breslau, and which she finished 
after his death. She had six sous and 
three daughters. For some particulars 
of the Tartar invasion and the battle 
of Legnitz, see St. lied wig, duchess of 
Silesia. Dlugosch, Hwtoria Polonica. 
Palacky, Gcw-hicte von Jlohwen. Stenzol, 
,s iv/y&gt;/"/vx l ( i rum Silesise, ii. 127, etc. 
A. Knoblich, Herzoyin Anna von SV/// &gt;/ //, 
I5iv&gt;lau. L665 Anna is called "Blessed" 
by several writers, and " Saint " by Mas 
Latrie, Tr&or, p. 905. 

B. Anna ( 2&gt; ), April S, of Sehlussel- 
bt-i-^. i:;th century. Daughter of 
Conrad, barou of Schlusselberg, near 
lliiiiiberg, in Frauconia. Anna became 
nid abbess of the Cistercian house of 
Sfhlusselberg, and, being a woman of 
many virtues, received sundry privileges 
from lu-r brother-in-law Leopold, bishop 
of r,;imberg. When she was dying she 
directed that her grave should be left 



72 



ST. ANNA 



open to receive her sister-in-law and 
successor, Anna, countess of Zollern, 
who would die within a month, which 
happened. Henriquez, Lilia CV.v/v/r//, 
ii. 250. Bucelinus. Rigollot, in Index 
to Boll., AA.SS. 

St. Anna (21) of Viterbo, Sept. 21. 
T 13(&gt;6. 3rd O.S.D. Worship un 
certain. 

St. Anna (22 ), Oct. 2. 1338. Duchess 
of Tver, and Grand-princess of Russia. 
Daughter of Demetrius Borissovitch, 
duke of Rostov. Married, c. 12}4, 
Michael Jaroslavitch, duke of Tver, 
nephew of St. Alexander Nevski. Her 
sister was married to Andrew, grand- 
prince of Russia, who died about 121 5. 
Michael, duke of Tver, succeeded to the 
principality. According to Martinov s 
Slavonian Calendar, he was killed in a 
glorious battle against the Tartars in 
1315. But according to Karamsin s 
Histoire de Russia, iv., he survived the 
battle. His nephew George, duke of 
Moscow, who had married a sister of 
Usbek, khan of Tartary, tried to deprive 
him of his right. Michael took Moscow, 
and carried away George s wife among 
the prisoners. Unfortunately, an epi 
demic broke out in Tver, and she fell a 
victim to it. George accused his uncle 
of poisoning her. The grand-prince 
had to go to the horde and appear before 
the khan to clear himself of the alleged 
crime. After undergoing much ill usage, 
which he bore with great fortitude and 
dignity, Michael was put to death, 
Nov. 22, 131!). Some months after 
execution his body was brought home, 
and found to be in perfect preservation. 
It was buried with all honour in the 
Kremlin of Moscow, in the monastery of 
St. Saviour, on the spot where now 
stands the old church of the Transfigura 
tion. He was mourned as the friend of 
his country throughout all Russia, most 
of all in his own dukedom of Tver. He 
is honoured as a saint and martyr. The 
Duchess Anna took the veil, and so did 
Xenia, the virtuous and pious mother of 
Michael. Anna removed from Tver to 
Kasan, at the request of her son Basil, 
and died there in 133S. Her body was 
translated into the cathedral in the reign 
of Alexander Michaclovitch ( 1 (345- ID 7 \), 



the first of the Romanoffs ; the king 
himself carried the venerable corpse. 

B. Anna (23 ), April Ki, of Camerino, 
O.D.S. f 1 3(59. A native of the march of 
Ancona. Mentioned in the Dominican 
Martyrology and by various writers of 
that order. Jacobilli calls her a nun 
famous for sanctity and miracles. Pio,, 
KTbmtftt, etc. 

B. Anna ("24; of the Cross. K .th 
century. First abbess of the first 
nunnery of the Order of the Assumption 
of our Lady, otherwise called our Lady 
of Mercy. The order was founded for 
men, by Peter Nolasca, in 1 235, but had 
no communities of women. The first 
nunnery was founded at Seville about 
1508. (See ST. MARY OF HELP.) Helyot,, 
Hist, dcs Ordrcs Monastiques, part iii. 
chap. 37. 

B. Anna (25) Toschel, Jan. 28, 
Nov. in. j- 1 582. A Benedictine abbess 
at Riga, who distinguished herself by 
her streuous opposition to the Lutheran 
and Calvinistic heresies. She lived to 
the age of 13o. Bucelinus, Men. Ben., 
Jan. 28, spells her name TOICHEL. 
Collin de Plancy, Saintes et Bienltcureuscs^ 
Nov. 10. 

B. Anna (26) de Roussy, founder of 
the first convent of Ursulines at Paris, 
c. 1612. (Sec ANGELA MEIUCI.) Guene- 
bault. 

B. Anna (27) of Beaulieu, June 24. 
f Ki 18. GAI.I.IOTA. 

Ven. Anna ( 2S) of St. Bartholomew, 
June 7. 1 53&lt; &gt;- 1 (528. Born at Almandral, 
in Old Castile. Her parents were Fer 
nando Garcias and Mary Manganas. 
Anna was a Carmelite nun of the re 
formed order. One of the first who took 
the habit in St. Teresa s monastery of 
St. Joseph, at Avila. Her humility 
made her a great favourite with Teresa,, 
who calls her " a great servant of God, " 
and says that, although only a lay-sister, 
she was of more use to her than any of 
the other nuns whom she took with her 
on her journeys to assist in making re 
forms and establishing new monasteries 
of the reformed rule. She accompanied 
her beloved mistress on many of these 
expeditions as her secretary, and attended 
her with devoted affection in her last 
illness. On October 4, 1582, at Alba. 



15. ANNA 



78 



do Tonnes, Teresa lay the last hour 

of her life with her head on Anna s 

shoulder, and died in her arms. Having 

served her apprenticeship under this 

great reformer and founder, Anna went 

to France, about 1004, and founded 

houses of the same Order of Barefooted 

Carmelites at Tours and Pontoise. In 

loll she was sent for by Albert and 

Isabel, to found ;i monastery at Antwerp. 

Tlu-ro sli, r, mained until her death in 

1 "_ ,, four years after the canonization of 

her ^mistress, aged seventy-six. The / 

vfSt Jaw di Clmntal, written by her niece 

Mother Chaugy, says, " Mother Anne of 

St. Bartholomew, who is now held to bo 

a saint, hud a vision respecting tho 

Congregation of tho Visitation, more 

than four years before its foundation. 

Madame do Chantal one day told her 

that she often wished to enter the Order 

of Reformed Carmelites. Anna said, 

Wo, St. Teresa will not have you as 

her daughter. You will have so many 

daughters of your own that you will be 

tin- companion of our blessed Mother. 

(Jod ha- work for you to do through tho 

Bishop of Geneva. " Anna was regarded 

i saint by tho people of Antwerp. 

&gt;\ hen her body was laid in the church, 

re burial, they came and touched it 

With more than twenty thousand rosaries 

1 linages. \ ( x t day the people from 

the country round came to honour 

saint and derive some benefit from 

touching h,. r saeivd remains. She is not 

canonized. Sh is called " Venerable " 

V Butler and Dalton, also by tho Bol- 

fe who relate that her heavenly 

ions twice saved the city of 

Antwerp from imminent danger in sieges. 

&lt; uliKT, quoting Tenvecorin, Preci* 

*&gt; ""/"&lt; *, says that, after her death, the 

ttioipal body of Antwerp went every 

in procession, carrying candles, to 

r Convent, to acknowledge solemnly 

owed their deliverance to her 

She it mentioned several times 

P. reresa s account of her F&lt;.tni,l... 

lu 1 735 Clement XH. permitted 

ings for her canonization to be 

Utinhand. Guerin, Petite Bollandistes 

Anna &lt;-, Toussaint &lt;le Voh 

1 aoble family of iJn-tagne, 
Jled Sainte Anne, also the 



Saint of NY-ant. Neant was her parish 
i &lt;!&gt;]&gt;. Morbihan ). She built the hospital 
of Ploermel. PftiU HoUan&lt;U*tr* t xv. 

B. Anna (: i Maria Taigi, June 9. 
17u .t-ls:;7. :;rd Order of Trinitarians. 
Represented looking up to a sun. Anna 
Maria Antonietta Gesulda was born at 
Siena. Her father was Luigi Pietro- 
Gesulda, a chemist. In 177.") he was 
ruined by his own fault. The family, 
being reduced to extreme poverty, re 
moved on foot to Rome. Gesulda and 
his wife became servants. Their little 
girl worked in a silk factory. She 
married Domeuico Taigi, a servant in 
the noble family of Chigi. Anna Maria 
was fond of dress and amusement, 
especially theatrical entertainments. 
These frivolous tastes facilitated the 
wicked designs of an old libertine who, 
with great patience and cleverness, 
pursued her with unholy attentions, 
until a day came when her passion for 
finery delivered her into his hands. 
From that day her existence was em 
bittered by shame and regret. The 
whole of her after-life was an incessant 
penance for this sin. Her husband s 
presence was a continual reproach to her, 
and she bore all his exactions and 
caprices with great humility. She had 
four sons and three daughters, whom sho- 
brought up very carefully and piously. 
She dutifully cared for and waited on 
her father and mother as long as they 
lived. Sho was naturally inclined to 
gluttony, and mortified this temptation 
with great ardour and self-denial, 
especially by going for days together 
without drinking. 

In 1 7 . is the Taigi were reduced almosi 
to destitution, in consequence of tho 
attempt of the French to establish a 
republic in Rome, which took away tho 
means of subsistence from tho poorer 
classes. Tho Chigi were unable to pay 
the wages of so many servants, and they 
were thrown upon tho charity of those 
who had anything left to give. 

From the time of her conversion and 
tho beginning of her penitent life, Anna 
always sa\v before her what sho described 
as a sun. It was of tho size that the 
real sun in the heavens appears to our 
ordinary bight, of extreme brightness, 



ST. AXXOFLEDIS 



and yet she could look at it, even with 
her eye which was nearly blind. In 
this sun she saw events past, present, 
and future, and sometimes thoughts and 
motives. She first saw it while taking 
the discipline, and for the rest of her 
life it was always before her. She had 
frequent ecstasies, during which she was 
so insensible to all that went on around 
her, that her husband used to shake her 
and reproach her with falling asleep in 
the midst of her duties, and even at her 
prayers. She would never suffer any 
one to be spoken ill of in her presence, 
and always suggested excuses for those 
who had done wrong. She was zealous 
in the conversion of the wicked, there 
fore some who were pronounced hope 
lessly hardened were commended, in 
desperation, to her intercession. While 
obtaining of God the conversion of a 
sinner, she suffered great agony of 
body, as well as anguish of mind. 
Her charity included condemned crimi 
nals, whom she was sometimes successful 
in persuading to repentance and con 
fession, after priests had been discouraged 
by their obduracy. She was much liked 
and respected for her piety and her gift 
of prophecy by Cardinal Fesch, Napo 
leon s uncle, by Marie Louise de Bourbon, 
queen of Etruria, by Cardinal Pedicini, 
and several other persons of much higher 
education and station than herself; but 
although she had taken alms when 
her family were at the verge of starva 
tion, she would never accept from any 
of those exalted persons any favours or 
benefactions which would in the least 
&lt;legreo raise her out of her humble state 
of life, and this was for two reasons : 
first, she wished to remain independent, 
to be always free to speak fearlessly and 
truly; secondly, she did not desire to 
place within reach of her children 
luxuries and leisure which they might 
miss when they were grown up. She 
feared for them idleness and love of 
pleasure ; she thought that if they were 
lifted for a time out of the life of toil 
and privation to which they were born, 
and then dropped back into it, the 
remembrance of their temporary ease 
and luxury might become a temptation 
to them. She died in 1837. Her beati 



fication took place in 1 Si i: I, under Pius IX. 
Her husband, then a very old man, was 
one of the important witnesses on the 
occasion. He said that she was a very 
good woman ; he as little suspected her 
of being a saint as of having ever sinned 
against him ; he said he had always 
considered her a person of great virtues 
and an incomparable wife, but most of 
her extraordinary gifts and graces ho 
had only heard of since her death. She 
was a tertiary of the Order of the Trini 
tarians for the Redemption of Captives. 

While her canonization was going on, 
in 18i)o, her Life was written by Dr. 
Luquet, bishop of Hesebon, and during 
that time sundry notices appeared in 
the Giornale &lt;li Iloma and the Analecta 
Juris Pontificii, iii., iv. The author of 
Les Mystiques says that her reputation 
for sanctity and prophecy was such that 
she was the fashion among cardinals 
and prelates, and attained a degree of 
notoriety and the entree to houses and 
society to which her position would not 
have entitled her. Dr.Luquet s little book 
is the chief authority for this article. 

St. Annofledis, Dec. 1 and 7 (AGNE- 
FLETTK, LANOFLEDIS, NOFLEDIS, NOFLETE 
ONOFLETTE). c. 055. Nun under ST 
FAHA. Angels were heard singing at the 
moment of her death. Chastelaiu, Voc 
Ha&gt;/. Mabillon, AA.SS. O.S.B. 

St. Anominata, V. M. Sister 01 
ST. COLOMBA OF EVOHA. 

Anonymous Saints. Besides the 
vast number of saints named in the 
various calendars of Christian Churchi 
a multitude of others are commeinoratec 
whose names are not preserved. 

In the Roman Martyroloyy alone there 
are more than thirty-six thousand un 
named martyrs. Of these, a great numbei 
arc women, who perished in the indis 
criminate massacre of Christians by 
heathens, or of orthodox or Catholic 
Christians by heretics. When a whole 
family were massacred, the names o: 
the men are often mentioned, while 
the wives, daughters, or companions 
who shared the martyrdom are com 
memorated, but not named. Thus we 
have, Feb. 15, St. Crato with his wife 
and family; Sept. 1, forty virgins arc 
honoured at Heracles, disciples anc 



ST. . \\SOAIJ) 



75 



l llo\v-iuiirtyi i s of St. Ammon tlio deacon. 
&lt; .i Dec. L .~&gt; welind that seventy women and 
two hundred nu-n were companions of the 
martyrdom of ST. A NAM ASIA, early in 
the 4th century. ( )n the same day aro 
uKo honoured many thousands" who 
perished about that time, at Xicomedia, 
under Diocletian. These Christians had 
assembled in church ou Christmas Day. 
The Emperor ordered the gates to bo 
shut, and tires prepared all round tho 
building, trip. .Is with incense being set 
before the doors. An officer then pro 
claimed, with a loud voice, that whoever 
wished to escape had only to come out 
and offer incense to Jove. The Christians 
all answered with one voice that they 
would rather die. So they were burnt 
uli\v. and were born in heaven on the 
anniversary of the same day that Christ 
was born on earth. There occur fre 
quently in tho R.M., such entries as 
eii virgins," "forty virgins," "six 
sisters," " four hundred martyrs of both 

Besides these, there aro the nuns who 
followed the precept and example of 
ST. EIJISA, their abbess, and obtained 
martyrdom by disfiguring themselves 
rather than endure desecration from tho 
barbarians who attacked their convent. 

The legend of ST. UKSCLA and her 
eleven thousand virgins of Cologne may 
be mentioned, whose story, if mythical, 

: very ancient origin. 
In addition to the unnamed martyrs, 
a number of comparatively obscure per- 
aro honoured by writers of saintly 
ry, and some of the stories told of 
them arc worthy of a place among tho 
tic legends of the Middle Ages: tho 
llowiugisan example: 
&lt;-&gt;n a wide and somewhat dreary plain 
in New Castile, not far from tho BOOTOe 
the Tagus, stood, in the middle of tho 
5th century,a J-nedu-tine nunnery. Its 
ioly inmates wen- threatened with cap- 
tare by an army of Saracens. The walls 
the building, being only of Kuffirirnt 
-Hi to withstand the attacks of wild 
ta or any chance intruder, could offer 
MfoctuaJ reOffcmoe to an armed hand. 
1 &lt;" abbess ran- the bell, and, assembling 
Bliten in the ehapel. exhorted 
to pray that the earth should 



swallow them up, rather than that thoy 
should fall alive into the hands of the 
infidels. Their prayer was -ranted, and 
the Saracens, approaching, found nothing 
but scanty heath, lavender, and wild 
shrubs, where from a distance they had 
seen the towers of a stately convent. 
While vainly seeking for that which 
was no longer to be found, at Vesper- 
time they suddenly heard the convent 
bells ringing beneath their feet. To 
this day shepherds and travellers passing 
over the spot at the hours of prayer. 
hear the mullled ringing of tho convent 
bell and the sweet distant voices of the 
nuns singing the office underground. 

There are many other nameless soldiers 
of the noble army of martyrs, who in 
largo and uncertain numbers followed 
their leaders of either sex to martyrdom, 
and are commemorated with them, but 
whoso names, in the words of an old 
hagiologist, "are known only to God." 

St. Anor, or HONOUIA, de Monte- 
bard. 12th and i:!th centuries. Cousin 
of St. Bernard. Married a brother of 
Hugh de Seiguelay, archbishop of Sens 
and Diambert, bead of the Seignelay 
family. Her son, William de Seignelay, 
was Bishop of Auxerre, 1_!&gt;7-12LM. 
Gall la Cln-isi mmi. Mas Latrie, 7V 

St. Anscrida, April us, V. Wor 
shipped with a double office at Xonau- 
tula, in Italy, where her body is kept. 
It was probably taken there from one of 
tho Koman cemeteries. AA.SS. Boll., 



St. Ansitrudis, AISTUI-DK. 

St. Ansoald, Aug. 1&gt;4, V. at Mau- 
beuge. 1 1 tli century. B. Theodoric, 
abbot of Andagin or Audain, in the 
forest of Ardennes in Belgium, was 
vowed t;&gt; a religious life. by his mother 
in his childhood. His father was very 
angry, and insisted that he should bo 
brought up as a soldier. The child broke 
liis arm and was nearly killed, whereupon 
his father gave him up to his mother, 
saying that if it were God s will that ho 
should be a monk, he would recover. 
She tended him so well that ho did 
recover, and then she confided him to 
her daughter Ansoald, in tho convent of 
Maubeugo, to be taught his letters and 
the Psalter. Ausould was a woman of 



76 



ST. ANSOMIA 



great piety and very dirty. She in 
structed and tended her little brother 
with gentleness and diligence. She died 
of cancer. Boll., AA.SS., inter Prse- 
termissos. 

St. Ansomia, June 4, M. Same as 
AUSONIA, June 2, M. at Lyons. 

St. Anstrude, AUSTKUDE. 

St. Anstruse, AUSTKVDE. 

St. Antea, ANTHIA. 

St. Antha, Dec. 12, M., with AMMO- 
NAJMA. 

St. Anthia, April 18 (ANCIA, ANTEA, 
ANTIA), M. at Home or Messina, with 
her son, St. Eleutherius, Bishop, perhaps, 
of Illyricum. She is said to have been 
contemporary with the Apostles and to 
have seen St. Paul ; but the Acts of St. 
Eleutherius, on which the story rests, are 
pronounced by Papebroch to be apocry 
phal. EJL Boll., AA.SS. Martin. 

St. Anthilia, Sept, 24, 25 (ANTHILLA, 
ANTILIA), V. M. at Arezzo, in Tus 
cany. 

St. Anthilia, ANTHILIA. 

St. Anthusa(l), or DOMNINA, March 
20. Nero, angry at the success of ST. 
PHOTINA S preaching at Carthage, ordered 
her and her five sisters to bo taken to 
a golden chamber, seven golden chairs 
and a table to be placed there, and his 
daughter Domnina, with a hundred fol 
lowers, to go in and talk to these Chris 
tian women. Domnina and her attendants 
were speedily converted. She was bap 
tized by Photina, and took the name of 
Anthusa (sometimes given to Photina 
herself). There are several saints of 
the names of Domnina and Anthusa 
honoured in the Church on various days, 
but it is not recorded that any one of 
them was daughter of Nero. 

Henschenius and Papebroch give the 
story in the Life of St. PJivtina, from 
some old Greek Act*, but do not consider 
it probable. Boll., AA.SS. 

St. Anthusa (2 ), Aug. 22. Time of 
Valerian. 4th century. Called in 
Roman Martyrology Anthusa the Elder. 
A woman of Seleucia. Daughter of rich 
idolaters. She took her two servants, 
Charisius and Xeophytus, and left her 
home, pretending she was going to visit 
her nurse, but took the road to Tarsus, 
where she wanted to go and be baptized. 



St. Athanasius, bishop of that city, was 
brought by an angel to meet her on the 
road. There was no water to be had, so 
he prayed and brought water out of the 
ground, wherewith he baptized Anthusa 
and her two servants. She then re 
turned to her mother s house, but was 
refused admittance ; so she betook her 
self to a solitary life in the desert, and 
lived among the beasts for twenty-three 
years, and then died in peace. Meantime 
SS. Athanasius, Charisius, and Neophytus 
were taken by Valerian and put to death. 
All four are commemorated together. 
Anthusa is called "Martyr" in the- 
Roman Martyrology. AA.SS. 

St. Anthusa (3) the Younger, Aug. 
27, M. Clothed in a rough and ragged 
garment and thrown into a well. Wor 
shipped in Sicily. R.M. Piuius, in 
AA.SS. 

St. Anthusa (4), July 27, V. 8th 
century. Abbess of Constantinople. 
She dedicated herself to an ascetic 
religious life, after the example of St, 
Sisinnus, and founded two religious 
houses, one for men and the other for 
women; she herself presided over the 
latter. In the iconoclastic persecution, 
the Emperor Constantino Copronymus, 
hearing that Anthusa and her nuns wor 
shipped images, sent for her. She was 
brought to trial with her nephew, who- 
had succeeded Sisinnus in the care of the 
monastery. Anthusa was subjected to 
many tortures, and would perhaps have 
been put to death, but it happened that 
the empress was at the point of death in 
child-birth. Anthusa prophesied for 
her a safe delivery of twins a son and 
daughter. As this presently proved 
true, the saint was liberated, and taken 
into great favour by the empress. The 
girl was called after Anthusa and edu 
cated by her, and is commemorated 
April 17. R.M. AA.SS. 

St. Anthusa (5), April 17. 8th 
century. A benevolent and pious prin 
cess. Daughter of Constantino V. (Co- 
pronymousj. Named after and educated 
by ST. ANTHUSA (4). Founded the first 
orphan asylum in the Christian world. 
Finlay, l&gt;ij::&lt;mttn&lt; L ////-/ /v, p. 81. Hen 
schenius. Boll., AA.SS. 

St. Anthusa (C;, Feb. 22. A Grecian 



B. AXTONIA 



77 



lady put to tho sword with her twelve 
servants. Henschenius. Boll., AA.&gt; ^ 

St. Anthusa i 7 &gt;, mother of ST. 
AKTHKI.I.AIS. 

B. Anthusa (8), Jan. 27. 4th cen 
tury. Mother of St. Chrysostom. 
StJidler. 

St. Antia, ANTHIA. 

St. Antiga, Feb. 22, M. at Xico- 
meiliii, witli SS. VICTORINA, PAULA, EME- 
KITA. A ST.. MAN A, DATIVA, ROGATIANA, 
UUIIANA. MAXIMA, MARINA, MATKONA aud 
her daughter PEKEGHINA, SEcr.sDri.A, 
.II-TA, CASTULA, MAHCELLINA, CASTA, 
DMNMI -LA, LIBOSA, FLAVIA, DOTA, Fru- 
. uii.l K KGINA (3). Many Christians 
were martyred at Xicomedia, in Bithynia, 
at different times. Ten thousand are 
commemorated on one day in the Greek 
calendars and . 5628 on another. Whether 
the few whose names are here preserved 
are amongst the same, or were slain at 
other times, we do not know. Heu- 
schenius. AA.SS. 

St. Antigone (1), Feb. 27, M. at 
Home. AA.SS. 

St. Antigone (2) of Panuonia, Feb. 
28, M. Perhaps the same as the 
above. 

Antilia, ANTHILIA. 

St. Antiquiora, Aug. :n, M. at 
Ancyra, in Galatia. 4.4.$$. 

SS. Antonia (I ) and Tertulla, 
April 2 . , VV. MM. Consecrated virgins, 
rat to death at Cirtha, in Xnmidia, with 
Jfi Agapius and Secundinus, bishops, 
win had long been in exile there; also 
\omilianus, a soldier; and a woman 
with her twin children. li.M. AA.SS. 

St. Antonia ( 2 &gt;, May 4, M. at Xico 
media, in Bithynia. Mentioned in tho 
Martyrology of St. Jrrumc. She was hung 
np hy one arm for three days, kept in 
prison for two years, and then burned to 
Henschenius thinks she may 
possibly bo tho same as ANTONINA (1). 
8.M. AA.SS. 

St. Antonia (3\ One of the 
martyrs of Lyons, who died in prison. 

S I5\I.I:IN.\. 

St. Antonia (4), June 4. Com 
memorated with TBOPHONIA. AA.SS. 
St. Antonia (5), April 12, M. 

1 . 1 . .s ,s . 

B. Antonia ()), ANK.INMIE, or 



AMOMKTTA, Feb. 2S, April 7. 1401- 
1472. O.S. F. A native of Florence. 
She was still very young when left a 
willow with one son. She took the veil 
in Florence, in tho convent of Sant 
Ouofrio, of cloistered nuns of tho Third 
Order of St. Francis. B. ANGELINA 
CORBAHA was founder and superior of 
all the cloistered tertiaries. In 1430 
she set Antonia over her head convent 
of ST. ANNA, at Foligno, where she 
formed a great friendship with B. PAULA. 
In 14. W Angelina sent them to Aquila 
to found two convents of the observance. 
Autonia became superior of ST. ELIZA 
BETH S. While she was there Angelina 
died, and was succeeded by B. MAH- 
GAUET of Foligno. Through St. John 
of Capistrano, vicar-general of tho ob 
servance, who visited Aquila at the time, 
A iitouia obtained the monastery of Corpo 
di Cristo, or the Holy Eucharist, which 
had just been built at Aquila for another 
order. She settled there in 1447, with 
twelve nuns of her order, to follow, in 
all its rigour, the first rule of ST. CLARA. 
In this monastery Paula died. Autonia 
soon had to enlarge the house. Her 
son and her other relations came 
troubling her with their worldly affairs, 
which was a trial to her. She ruled 
here for seven years, and died Feb. 28, 
1472, aged seventy - one. Her body 
lay in the church there for over four 
centuries, with the limbs supple, the 
eyes open, and every appearance of life. 
In 1847 Pius IX. approved her im 
memorial worship. Her feast is only 
kept in her own order. A.R.M. Romano- 
/&gt;///&lt;, April 7. Jacobilli, Saints of 
/ //&gt;/ //". Loon, Aureol&lt;&gt; di- Sninte Claire. 
Collin do Plancy gives her day as 
Feb. 29, 

B. Antonia 1 7 ) Guaineri, Oct. 27. 
O.S.D. 1407-1507. Xuu in tho Do 
minican convent of ST. CATHERINE THE 
M\I:TYU, in Brescia. While very young, 
she was reproved one day by tho choir- 
mistress for not singing loud enough. 
Hither not understanding how to modu 
late her voice, or being a little obstinate, 
she did not obey. To teach her sub 
mission, she was stripped down to her 
waist, und whipped in presence of tho 
nuns in the chapter. She became a 



78 



R. AXTOXIA 



pattern nun. At sixty-six she was sent 
with others to reform the convent of St. 
Catherine at Ferrara. There she was 
unanimously chosen prioress. She 
governed so well that that convent was 
soon remarkable for sanctity, and several 
of her nuns were sent to reform other 
convents. Several of them are num 
bered among the saints ; they are BB. 
VERONICA, who died July (&gt;, 1511 ; CE 
CILIA, who died 1511; ANGELA ( ,) 
SERAFIXA, who died 1512; PAULA SPEZ- 
ZANI, who died Aug. IS, 1 501* ; PERPETUA 
SAUDI; and COSTANZA. Antonia was 
humble arid self-denying, but strict, and 
at one time some discontented subordi 
nates succeeded in deposing her ; but 
the old nuns remonstrated, and had her 
reinstated. She died in 1507, at the 
age of a hundred, and was honoured 
thenceforth as a saint. AA.SS. Eazzi, 
Prediction. Pio, Uomini Uliistri per 
Santiia. 

B. Antonia (S), or ANTOINETTE 
D ORLEANS, April 22. -fKUS. Marquise 
do Belle Isle. Founder of the Bene 
dictines of Mount Calvary. She was 
(laughter of the Duke of Longueville, 
and related to the royal family of France. 
She married the Marquise de Belle Isle, 
eldest son of the Duke of Retz, and was 
left a widow while still young and beau 
tiful. She took the veil, at the age of 
twenty-seven, in a Cistercian monastery 
at Toulouse, where she was buried. She 
founded the nunnery of SS. MARY and 
SCHOLASTIC A, at Poitiers, and, on be 
coming abbess there, restored the primi 
tive strictness of the rule of St. Benedict. 
The members of this reformed rule are 
called the Congregation of Benedictine 
Nuns of Mount Calvary. Guenebault, 
Diet. (Vlcon. AA.SS., April 22, Prseter. 
Butler s Lives, note to " St. Benedict," 
March 21. Henriquez, Lil ut. 

St. Antoniana^M. with ST. ANTIGA. 

St. Antonina (\), May :;, V. M. 
Called " the Disguised," to distinguish 
her from two other martyrs of the same 
name. Represented wearing a veil, to indi 
cate disguise. At Constantinople, in the 
persecution under Diocletian and Maxi- 
mian, c. :&gt;on, she was condemned by 
Festus, the governor, to the lowest de 
gradation. Alexander, a soldier, changed 



clothes with her, and thus enabled her 
to escape from the infamous place in 
which she was. Both were taken, their 
hands cut off, and they were burned to 
death. 

The story of SS. THEODORA and 
Diclymus is almost identical with this ; 
the incident, in their case, happened at 
Alexandria during the same persecution. 
St. Ambrose, writing in the 4th century, 
tells the story with some amplifications, 
laying the scene at Antioch. He says 
that the young woman, being ordered 
to choose between abjuring her religion 
and being sent to the hipanar, said, 
" What I lose by force and .against my 
will is not my sin, and my Lord will 
not account me polluted if my heart 
is pure, but if I renounce Him and 
sacrifice to idols, that which I keep at 
such a price will profit me nothing. * 
So they took her to a place resorted 
to by the wicked. One of her guards 
changed clothes with her, and she es 
caped in safety. Soon afterwards some 
wicked men came into the room where 
she had been, and finding a man in her 
stead, thought the place was bewitched. 
They said, " Did not the governor send 
a woman hero in this very dress ? AVhcv 
knows what metamorphosis may befall 
us if we stay? Let us escape out of 
this house while we know what we are. * 
The pious fraud was soon discovered 
The soldier was brought before th( 
governor, who condemned him to death 
for aiding the escape of a prisoner undei 
his care. The Christian maiden, hear 
ing of it, came and begged to be put to 
death instead. The governor secrnec 
willing to consent. The soldier, how 
ever, entreated that the sentence already 
pronounced against him might be exe 
cuted, and the woman liberated. The 
governor said that as they were so 
anxious to die they might be gratified 
Accordingly both were burnt. li.M 
Golden L&lt; &lt;i&lt; il. 

Quintaduenas says Alexander anc 
Autonina were natives of Ocana, neai 
Madrid, and suffered about the year loo 
The Spanish and other hagiologista 
occasionally claim as compatriots the 
saints and martyrs who have become 
popular among them ; this doubtless 



ST. APHRODISIA 



79 



gives rise, in soraer cases, to a multi 
plication of saints. 

St. Antonina (2), June li , 3L at 
.-i, in Hithynia. In the persecution 
under Diocletian and Maximian, she was 
scourged, hung on the equulcns, her 
sides torn with hooks, burnt with lamps, 
and finally killed with a sword. R.M. 
AA.SS. 

St. Antonina (3) of Cea, March 1, M. 
I. presented with a barrel near her, or 
being put into a cask or sack. 

Said by the Spanish hagiographers 
to have been born at Cea, in the pro 
vince of Beira, in Portugal. Accused of 
deriding tho gods, she was tortured in 
various ways, then shut up in a vessel 
and drowned in a lake near Cea, under 
Diocletian. She is one of tho most 
popular of the Portuguese saints. This 
rhyme is common among tho peasants 
of the province, and refers to her 

" Antonina pcquena, 
Dos olhos grandcs, 
Mntarao-na idolatras 
E fVros gigantes." 

"Idolaters and savage giants killed 
little Antonina of tho large eyes." 

St. Antonina (. }) is given in the Roman 
fartyrolot/y. According to Henschenius, 
LA.SS.1 this is no other than St. Anto- 
ina of Nicea, in Bithynia ; her worship 
was introduced into tho Latin Church 
rom the Greek, in tho liJth century; 
ud tho word " Cea " has been introduced 
y mistake for " Xicea " by some of the 
opyists of old calendars. Antonina of 
;i has also been set up as another 
aint of the island of Cea, or Ceo. 

St. Antonina (4), May 7, M. in 
Vfrica. AA.SS. 

St. Antonina i ), June 2. One of 
tan martyrs commemorated this 
ay in St. Jerome s .I/"/-////-"/"-///. AA.SS. 

St. Anysia (I), Dec. :io. +304. 
. M. A young lady of Thessalonica, 
ho was so hi-iiutiful and had such 
uantitics of money, slaves, jYwrls, and 
11 kinds of splendid things, that she 
new not what to do. She said to her- 

]t - " How can I I..- MIV, I \\-ith all this 
ealth i " One Sunday, during tin- 
ersecution under Diocletian, as sh WBB 
"ing througli the Cassandrioto Gate on 



her way to church, or to the secret 
meeting-place of the Christians, she met 
a soldier, who rudely stopped her, and 
asked where she was going. In her 
fright she made tho sign of tho cross. 
He thought she was making game of 
him, seized hold of her, and insisted on 
having an answer. She said, "I am a 
servant of Christ, and I am going to my 
Lord s assembly." " I will not let you 
go there," said the soldier. "I will 
take you to pour a libation to tho gods, 
for to-day we worship tho sun." As she 
tried to get away from him, ho pulled 
her veil, and rudely touched her face. 
" May Christ Jesus rebuke thee, devil ! " 
cried the maiden, angry and terrified. 
The soldier drew his sword, and plunged 
it in her side. She fell, and all the 
ground was stained with her blood. 
The crowd first pitied her youth, and 
then abused her for contemning the gods. 
The Christians buried her two stadia 
from that gate, and when the persecution 
was over, they built a house of prayer 
on the spot, to the left of tho public 
road. Such is the story given by Simeon 
Metaphrastes, Migne s edition, iii. 747. 
It is also in Surius, Baronins, the 3/lrno- 
%// of the Emperor Basil, Butler, Mar 
tin. etc. 

St. Anysius, bishop of Thessalonica^ 
is commemorated with St. Anysia. ( li. M. 
and Greek Synni-ary. ) Baring-Gould,. 
Lives, says Anysius received his name 
from the circumstance of Auysia s mar 
tyrdom being fresh in the memory of 
the Christians of Thessalonica when he 
was born. Ho was bishop there at the 
time of the memorable massacre under 
Theodosius the Great, in consequence of 
which St. Ambrose forbade that Emperor 
to enter the church at Milan, in 889. 

St. Anysia (2), Dec. :u, M., is 
said by tho Bollandists, Grxco-SInr. 
( &gt;i/&gt; mltir, to mean ANASTASIA ; but this 
compiler ventures to think it is ANYSIA 
( 1 i. 

St. Apersia, July L&gt;:,. Commemo- 
in the Arctbico-Egyptian M&lt;irtyro- 



St. Aphra, An;\. 

St. Aphrodisia, Nov. 5. There was 
a church in her honour at Bezicrs, 
where St. Gerald, bishop of Bcziers, 



ST. APHTE 



chose to be buried in 112. f Baring- 
Gould, Lives of the Saints, " St. Gerald." 

St. Aphte, A&lt;;ATHA. 

St. Apollinaris (1), Aug. 2;J. M. 
with St. Timothy at Rheims, in Gaul. 
B.M. 

St. Apollinaris (2) Syncletica, 
Jan. 5. Early in the 5th century. 
Daughter of Anthemius, who is called 
by Metaphrastes, Emperor; but Mr. 
Baring-Gould considers it iuore probable 
that he was grandfather of the Emperor 
-of that name, and held the office of 
consular prefect of Rome and regent 
during the minority of Theodosius the 
Younger. Having obtained her parents 
permission to make a pilgrimage to 
Jerusalem, she there liberated all the 
slaves who had been sent with her, keep 
ing in her service only one eunuch and 
an old man to arrange her tent. One 
night, having gone into her tent as 
usual, her two servants sleeping outside, 
she put on a hermit s habit, which she 
had procured in Jerusalem for the pur 
pose, and fled silently into the desert. 
"When her servants, aided by the gover 
nor of the place where they were, had 
sought her in vain, they returned to her 
parents, who supposed she had taken 
refuge from the world in some sister 
hood of holy women. Meantime, Apol 
linaris betook herself to St. Macarius of 
Alexandria, who lived in the desert of 
Scete, at the head of a large community 
of recluses in cells and caves. Having 
cut off her hair, and being by this time 
much tanned and disfigured by exposure 
to hardships, hunger, and the Egyptian 
sun, she easily passed for a man, and 
spent many years among the brethren 
under the name of Dorotheus. Authe- 
inius had another daughter, who was 
possessed of a devil, and as he had 
heard of the sanctity and miracles of 
St. Macarius, he sent her to him to be 
-cured. Macarius handed her over to 
Dorotheus, who said that God had not 
conferred on him the gift of miracles, 
and begged the good abbot not to give 
the young women into his charge. 
Macarius insisted, and the girl was shut 
up with Dorotheus in his cell for some 
days, that he might cast out the devil 
.by prayer and fasting. After a time, 



the daughter of Anthemius was sent 
home cured. A few mouths afterwards 
she became dropsical. Her parents, 
believing her to be pregnant, and turn 
ing a deaf ear to her denial, insisted so 
vehemently on knowing who was her 
seducer, that at last she said it was 
Dorotheus, in whose cell she had spent 
some days. Anthemius therefore sent 
to St. Macarius, and requested an inter 
view with the guilty Dorotheus. The 
monks were horrified at the charge 
brought against their brother ; but Doro 
theus said, "Fear not, brethren, God 
will reveal my innocence. 1 When Apol 
linaris was brought into the presence of 
Anthemius, she told him she was his 
lost daughter. He rejoiced greatly to 
see her again. When she had stayed a 
short time with her parents, and had by 
her prayers obtained her sister s cure, 
she returned to the desert. The Ji .J/. 
says that her illustrious actions are 
praised by St. Athanasius. Boll., 
AA.SS. Her story, as told by Meta- 
phrastep, is given by Baring-Gould, 
Lives of the Saint*. 

St. Apollonia (1), Feb. si, is called 
in French APPOLINE, V. M. at Alexan 
dria, 249. Patron against toothache and 
diseases of the teeth. Represented 
bound to a pillar, having her teeth pulled 
out, or holding a tooth in pincers. After 
the murder of ST. QUIXTA (q.v.\ the! 
mob pillaged the houses of the Christians/ 
burning what they did not carry away, 
so that the city looked like a place 
taken by storm. After this they seized 
that admirable and aged virgin Apol 
lonia ; " and first they broke all her 
teeth with heavy blows, then they kindlec 
a great fire, and told her she should 
be thrown into it unless she would 
repeat their blasphemies. At first she 
seemed to hesitate ; then, taking courage, 
she leapt into the fire, and became a 
burnt sacrifice to the Lord. ( Crake, 
llixt. of tlr Church, quoting a letter oi 
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, describ 
ing the seventh persecution.) 

Suicide and courting martyrdom and 
persecution have been repeatedly com 
tlemued by the Church in all age 
and decrees have been made forbidding 
the honours of martyrs to those who 



ST. AQt ILIXA 



81 



voluntarily sought them ; but St. Apol- 
lonia has always bccu ranked among 
the martyred Saints. 

This persecution is described in a 
letter (preserved by Eusebius) from St. 
Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, to 
Fabius, Bishop of Antioch. It was not 
commanded by the Emperor Philip, who 
favoured the Christians, but was an out 
break of ill feeling on the part of tho 
Alexandrians, stirred up to hostility 
against the Christians by a poet and 
soothsayer. 

//..I/. Villegas. Tillemont. Baillet, 
Callot. Husonbeth. 

Her apocryphal Act*, given by Bol- 
landus, place her martyrdom in the time 
of Julian the Apostate, who kills her 
with his own hand. 

B. Apollonia &lt; 2), Sept. 1&lt;), 1022. M. 
A widow, aged sixty, descended from 
the Kings of Firando. She lived with 
MAKV M"ii; AYAMA, and was put to death 
with her and LUCY FUKITAS ( q.v.). Apol- 
lonia s nephew, Gasper Cotenda, and 
his son Francis were martyred next 
day. 

St. Appamia. 31. with ST. JULIA 
of Troyes. 

St. Apphia, or APPIA (1), Nov. 22, M. 
1st century: \.Yifo of St. Philemon, a 
citizen of Colosse. The Epistle of SS. 
Paul and Timothy concerning Onesimus 
is addressed to Philemon and " our bo- 
loved Apphiu." In the Roman Catholic 
version she is called, " Appia, our dearest 
sister." The liomnn Martyroloyy and 
the Greek menologies say SS. Philemon 
and Apphia, disciples of St. Paul, suf- 
i martyrdom at Colosse in Phrygia. 
AVI ion, on the festival of Diana, tho 
heathen invaded the churches and some 
Christians fkd, these two were scourged 
by order of Articles, the prefect, and 
afterwards buried up to their waists in 
tho ground, and stoned to death in that 
&lt;1&lt; 1- nceless condition. More modern 
writers say the manner of their death 
appears to indicate that it was per].. - 
t rat d by ;i moh, in a riot, and not by 
legal trial and sentence. Tradition 
makes St. Philemon liishop of Gaza. 
The M&gt; nnln-iy f Until ])hu-,( s tho martyr 
dom at EpheetH, Baillct, I /. *. Phi lc- 
mou 1 . 



St. Appia (i ), AITHIA. 

St. Appia (2), June 1, M. with ST. 

AUCEGA. ,/L-I.&gt;V 

St. Appia (:]), June 2&lt;&gt;, M. at 
Corinth. ^Ll.Nv 

St. Appoline, APOLLONIA. 
St. Apra, AFRA. 

St. Aprincia, or PKECE, June L L , 25, 
V. Abbess of Epinal on tho Moselle, 
loth century. Her relics were kept in 
the monastery of St. Clement at Metz 
(Metis). Papebroch could ascertain 
nothing of her date or history, and sus 
pected she in it/lit be the same as APHO 
NIA, July 15. AA.SS. Stadler. 

St. Apronia, or EVKONIA, July 15, 
Sept. 15. 5th century. Invoked by 
women in labour and other danger. 
Born at Troyes, in Champagne. Sister 
of St. Apere, or Epirns (in French Evre), 
Bishop of Toul. AA.SS., July 15. 
I .aillet, in the Life of St. Evre, Sept. 15. 
Prtifi Jiollandistcs. 

St. Apt, or APHTE, Feb. 5. ST. 
AGATHA is worshipped under this name 
in Provence, and a town is called after 
her. 

St. Aquila, Jan. 2:5, M. with SS. 
Severian her husband, and Florus their 
son ; they were burnt at Xeo-Ciesarea, 
anciently Jol, on tho coast of Mauri 
tania. M&lt;i /////"//// i&gt;i Salitbury. Boll., 
AA.SS. li.M. 

St. Aquilina (1), Jan. 22, M. 291. 
Mother of St. Victor, a priest or deacon, 
who for the crime of showing hospi 
tality to the martyrs SS. Vincent and 
Oronto,had his arms cut ott" by the elbows^ 
and was then beheaded. His father, 
although a Christian, was going to fleo 
from the persecutors, but at the entreaty 
of Aquiliua, ho remained at home, where 
thoy were both soon put to death with 
another eon. These events took placo 
either at Gerunda(Gerona in Catalonia), 
or at Pax Augusta ( Badajoz ), or Pax 
Julia ( Bojaj. Tho relics of all these 
martyrs were removed to Ebrodunum 
i Kmhruii, Alpcs Maritimcs, in France). 
I5llaiidu.s, AA.SS. Cahier, Caractdr- 
ittiguei \ &lt;&gt;&lt;. (irouix-*. 

St. Aquilina (2), June 1:5, V. M. 
293, Daughter of Christians at Byblus, 
the place called in the Old Testament 
Gcbal, the city of the Giblites, a very 

o 



82 



ST. AQUILIXA 



ancient city of Phoenicia and a chief seat 
of the licentious worship of Adonis. The 
votaries of this horrible religion and the 
priests who profited by it wore bitterly 
opposed to Christianity, and although 
there was at this time no general per 
secution of the Church, there were al 
ways laws and customs that could be 
brought into play by malice or greed. 
The priests were incensed to find that 
Aquilina, an orphan, scarcely twelve 
years old, was converting many of her 
companions and the women with whom 
she came in contact in her daily work, 
and was constantly speaking against the 
religion of the place. So when Volusian, 
the proconsul, came to Byblus, they ac 
cused her of impiety. He had her ar 
rested. When she was brought into his 
presence he was touched with compassion 
at the sight of her youth and beauty and 
her fragile appearance, and besought her 
to renounce her dangerous opinions, as 
the least of the tortures to which she 
might be subjected would certainly de 
stroy her life at once. She answered 
that she did not want his pity, and 
would gladly suffer tortures and deatli 
for the sake of her Master. Ho then 
ordered the executioners to beat her with 
their hands, and asked her how she liked 
this first and least of the torments. "As 
little," said she, " as you spare the 
Christians, will the God of the Christians 
spare you." Then he caused her to be 
stripped of her clothes, and held by two 
of the executioners, while a third beat 
her with a scourge ; at the same time 
Volusian said to her, " Where is this 
God of yours, who will not spare me ? " 
Other tortures and insults were heaped 
upon the brave little girl, and at last red- 
hot awls were driven into her ears to 
burn the brain, the smoke came out at 
her nostrils, and the pain was so great 
that she fell lifeless to the ground. 
Volusian commanded that she should not 
be buried, but cast out to be eaten by 
dogs and unclean beasts ; so her body 
was tin-own into the road outside the gate 
of the town. But she was not dead, and 
as she lay an angel touched her and 
bade her arise and go back to the city 
and address a final remonstrance to her 
tyrant. She arose, gave thanks to God 



for her recovery, and then kneeled down 
and prayed, " Lord, I hoped yesterday 
that I was counted among Thy martyrs. 
Thou kuowest that I suffered pain and 
shame for Thee, and was willing to suffer 
even unto death. Lord, let me not lose 
my crown." Then she was comforted ; 
and, in obedience to the angel, returned 
to the town. She went through the gates, 
passed the guards unnoticed, and walked 
into the room where Volusian lay asleep. 
He awoke and saw a small white ghostly 
creature in the room. In his fright he 
called to his servants to bring a light, 
and asked who had disturbed him. They 
said, ." It is the Christian maiden that 
you killed yesterday, and cast out for 
the dogs to eat." Then Aquiliua said, 
" Volusian, my God sends me back to 
warn you again that you cease from per 
secuting His servants. If you will still 
repent, you may be as one of us ; but if 
not, know that our God will punish you 
with everlasting torments greater than 
those you inflict upon us." " Take her 
away," said Volusian ; " keep her safely 
until it is day." In the morning he 
tried again to persuade her to apostatize. 
Finding his efforts vain, he condemned 
her to be beheaded. She kneeled down 
and died praying, untouched by the exe 
cutioner, and the Christians took her 
away and buried her. EM. and AA.SS., 
from ancient Acts given in Greek and 
Latin by Henscheuius. 

St. Aquilina (:J), March :{u, V. M. 
AA.SS. 

St. Aquilina (4), July 2&lt;5, M. Be 
headed in Lycia. Disciple of St. Chris 
topher. Scr Xll HTA. E.M. 

St. Aquilina ( ). See AIMHAXGELA 
]&gt;E PIM-:&lt;;XACHIS. 

St. Arabia, March i:-J. Burnt at 
Nicea, with ST. THEUSETA and others, 
/i . M. Henschenius, AA.SS. ST. AUIAMA 
is possibly the same. 

St. Araclea, or HEKACLEA, Sept. 2D. 
The first name in a list of martyrs in 
Thrace. It is uncertain whether Araclea 
is a place or a person. AA.SS. 

St. Aradegundis, liAi&gt;i:&lt;;t-.M&gt;. 

St. Aragond, IIAIH-:&lt;;UXI&gt;. 

St. Aragone, KAPKCH-ND. 

B. Archangela (1) de Pregna- 
chis, M. Said to have been a martyr at 



ST. ARMA(ilLl) 



83 



Brescia, in tin- 2nd century. ST. AQUI- 
I.INA (. &gt; ) was her fellow-Christian and 
martyr. Their story was considered by 
I .ollaiidists unworthy of attention, being 
found only in a fabulous martyrology of 
Bresci*. 

B. Archangela (2) Girlani, Jan. 2:., 

. Feb. U, li, June 1, 27. f i: (il - 
Superior &lt;if the convent of St. Mary of 
Paradise at 3Iantua : it was called Little 
Carmol. Her penitence and asceticism 
w re wonderful. Her holiness was at 
tested by miracles. Her worship was 
authorized by Louis Gonzaga, Bishop of 
3Iantua, and his successors. Her Life, 
in Italian, by Guastalla, was printed in 
Slu- is commemorated in the 
A.ll.M. for th&lt;&gt; Order of ,S ; . Miry &lt;f 
Mount 6 "////&lt;/, Jan. _"&gt;, Feb. 0; in that 
for the Barefooted Carmelites, Jan. 2s, 
Feb. lit. AA.SS., Prosier., June 1. Stad- 
ler gives the date of her death as 14 &gt; . 

St. Archelaa, or AKQUKLAIS, Jan. 1 s, 
V. 31. :Jrd century. Took refuge with 
SS. THKCI.A and SUSANNA, at Nola, in 
Campania; they wore all martyred at 
rno. AA.SS. in SS. Cesarius and 
Julian, Nov. 1. 

St. Archelais, Oct. 2H, M. at Antioch 
in Syria, with SS. Marianus and Sma- 
ragdus. Mentioned in the apographs of 
St. Jerome. Pi-tit* Hulldmltxtrs. 

St. Archiroga, Jan. 22, is mentioned 
in the Mart, llirli, as a saint of 

Spoleto. 

St. Arddun Benasgell. &lt; th cen 
tury. Sister of St. Dunawd, husband of 
St. Dwywe. Wife of I:rochwel Ysy- 
throg, son of a Prince of Powis. In the 
war against the Northumbrians, Brochwel 
was left to defend the monks, who wen 
praying at u distance from the main 
body of the army. Kthelfrid, King of 
Northumberland, unexpectedly attacked 
the monies and &gt; mid defeated 

them. It i&lt; said that some Welsh 
church, ^ were dedicated in her name, 
but their plaee is not now known. !, 

* /&gt;// Stiinfs, p. L I 17. 

St. Areapila is honoured a 
Subert as one of the eleven thousand 
virgins &lt;&gt;f Cologne, (in. iii;. 

St. Aregundis, I;AI.I:;I-M.. 
f St. Arema, June ,, M. at Home. 
rin. 



St. Aretina, ABTBNA. 

St. Argentea of Andalusia, May i:{, 
M. in . :; 1, at Cordova, witli St. Yulfurus, 
a Frenchman. They are represented 
together. Cahier, Groupts. Pah-xtm 
flfagrrodo, i. 

St. Ariaba, 31. Possibly the same 
as AIJ.M .IA. 

St. Ariadne, Sept. 17, 31. Repre 
sented hiding in a rock from her pursuers. 
In the reign of Adrian or Antoninus 
Pius, she was a servant of Tertillus, at 
Prymuesia, in Phrygia. She was cruelly 
beaten and sent away because she refused 
to join an idol festival in honour of the 
birthday of her master s son. After 
wards she was brought before the prefect 
and put to the torture, to induce her to 
sacrifice to the gods. Being set at 
liberty, she fled to the hills, but was 
pursued by soldiers. Seeing no help or 
chance of rescue, she cried to God to 
deliver her. A rock opened, admitted 
her, and closed again. Thus she re 
ceived her martyrdom and her tomb at 
the same moment, praising and giving 
God thanks. Her pursuers were killed 
by an apparition of angels sitting on 
horses and holding spears. Stilting, 
AA.SS. R.M. Jiloif. Eccle*. 

St. Ariene is honoured in Ethiopia. 
Same as IHKNK. Guerin. 

St. Arild, or AKII.A, Oct. 30, V. 31. of 
virginity, at Kingtou, near Thornbury. 
She is commemorated at Gloucester, 
Oct. 30. The church of Oldbury, in 
( iloueestershire, IK dedicated in her name. 
Victor de Duck, in AA.SS., from Leland 
and others. Memorial of British Pi&lt; ///, 
supplement. Parker s C&lt;il&lt;&gt;nd&lt;(r. 1 
is supposed to be the date of her trans 
lation to St. Peter s Abbey at Gloucester. 
Her martyrdom probably occurred very 
much earlier. Kekcnstein. 

St. Ariotrudis, KI;I:M KI I.K. 

SS. Arisima and Agaieta. Same 

/is Kii siMA and GAIANA. 

St. Arixa, July 2, 31. at Homo or in 



St. Armagela, or AKMI-I, Oct. 24. 
According to 3Ias Latrie, 7 / vW, she 
\\a&lt; a servant at Vienne, but she is 

probably the same as A KMKI. i.\. 

St. Armagild, Aug. 27. 
Bdlandittes. 



84 



ST. ARMATA 



St. Armata, Feb. 14. M. at Alex 
andria, with many others. Henschenius, 
in AA.SS. 

St. Armella, Oct. 24 ( ARMKL, AKMF- 
GELA). "J" 1(571 . Represented sitting on 
the floor in a kitchen, with cooking 
utensils in her hands. 

Daughter of pious peasants at 
Kampeneac, in Brittany. At twenty she 
went to be nursery-maid in the neigh 
bouring town of Plormel. When one of 
her master s daughters married a noble 
man, Armella went to be her maid. At 
sixty she had her leg broken by a kick 
from a horse. Long before sho was 
sufficiently recovered to walk, she sat in 
a corner of the kitchen to look to the 
housekeeping, and do what she could for 
her master and mistress. Ott, Die 
Lencnde. 

St. Arminia ( 1 ), March 20, is men 
tioned, among other martyrs, this day, in 
some old martyrologies. A A.SS., Prsetcr. 

St. Arminia ( 2;, or MAHIMINIA, 
May 28, M. in Africa. AA.SS. 

St. Arminia (3), April 19, M. at 
Melitina, in Armenia. AA.SS. 

St. Arndrude, EHEXTRUDE. 

SS. Aroa, or ROA, and Lucy. See 
CYPRILLA. 

St. Arquelais, ARCHELAA. 

St. Arsenia, HEREXIA. 

Arsima and her mother, Agatha, 
are mentioned in the Coptic calendar, 
Sept. 2(&gt;. AA.SS. 

St. Artemia (1), or ARTHEMIA, Aug. 
s, 16. Daughter of the Emperor Dio 
cletian and ST. SERENA. Artemia was 
delivered from a devil by St. Cryia- 
cus, who afterwards baptized her. She 
was killed by the Emperor Maximian 
after the martyrdom of Cyriacus. Her 
body is supposed to be in the church of 
St. Silvester, in the Campus Martins, at 
Rome. Artemia appears as a saint in 
Greven s Calendar, but her worship has 
never been generally recognized through 
out the Church. AA.SS. 

SS. Artemia ( 2 ) and Attica, Feb. 
1 x, YV. Daughters of Gallicanus, who 
was to have married ST. CON STANCH. 

St. Artemia (3) ttli century. 
Abbess of (, utcclar, in Spain. One of 
her nuns was ST. MAKY, fellow-martyr 
of ST. FLORA. Baillct, ! * 9. 



St. Artemidos. Patron of weakly 
children in Scio, one of the Cyclades. 
J. Theodore Bent, " Old Mythology in 
New Apparel," Macmillan l ILnjazinc, 
March, issr&gt;. 

St. Artena, or ARETIXA, of Tuderto, 
Jan. 2&lt;. f 303. She buried St. 
Seustio, martyr of Todi, and honoured 
him by building a church over his grave. 
Jacobilli, Saints of Uml&gt;ri&lt;f, iii. 2&gt;3. 

St. Arthella iS, or ARTHELAIS, March 
3, V. "f c. 570. A native of Con 
stantinople. The beautiful daughter of 
Lucius, proconsul under the Emperor 
Justinian, and of ST. AXTHUSA his wife. 
As the Emperor expressed great admira 
tion for her, Lucius concealed her for 
a time. Anthusa wept and lamented 
because, her daughter being already 
vowed to a religious life, she did not 
wish her to return to the world or to fall 
into the power of the Emperor. At her 
own request, sho was sent, under the care 
of three confidential servants, to her 
uncle Narses, who ruled in Italy. When 
she had accomplished more than half the 
journey, she was seized by robbers. Her 
guardians fled to the church of ST, 
EULALIA, where they prayed for the 
release of their mistress, and gave alms 
of her money to the poor. One of the 
beggars who received their alms said, 
"Inasmuch as you gave to one of the 
least of these My brethren, ye gave 
unto Me." And when He had thus 
spoken He vanished out of their sight. 
Then they knew that Christ had accepted 
their charity and heard their prayers. 
The robbers resolved to sell their captive 
for wicked purposes. As they went out 
of their house they were seized by the 
devil, and so died ; at the same time an 
angel of the Lord slew her gaoler and 
all his men, loosed her bonds, and led 
her out of the prison. She soon met her 
servants, and they all proceeded to 
Sipontum, a city of Apulia. She made 
an offering in the church of St. Michael 
at Monte Gargano near the town. Mean 
time Narses was informed in a dream of 
her approach. He went to meet her, and, 
having stayed three days by the way at 
Luceria, broiight her to Lenevento. 
She walked barefooted to the church of 
the Virgin Mary, where she offered six 



ST. ASELLA 



"hundred pieces of gold on the altar, and 
then, with her friends, received the Holy 
Communion. Soon after her arrival she 
was seized with fever, and died in her 
seventeenth year. All the women of 
the city lamented and wept. She was 
buried in the church of St. Luke, at the 
Porta Kufiua, and afterwards translated 
into the cathedral. Henschenius and 
Papebroch, in AA.SS. from an old L(l &lt; 
in a manuscript martyrology in the 
Library at Beuoveuto, and a /,// , in 
Longobardic characters, in the Vatican ; 
also from Vipera s History of the Bisltoi* 
/ !&gt; H i-i-nto ; and Ferrarius Italian 
Saints. 

St. Arthongathe, EHCONOOTHA. 

St. Artongate, ERCONGOTHA. 

St. Ascelina, Aug. *J:-J, Dec. 27, V. 
Cistercian, -f 1 1 i5. Related to St. 
Bernard. When she was twelve years 
old, a young clerk, being much struck 
with her beauty, and desiring some oppor 
tunity of conversing with her alone, 
offered to teach her Latin, music, and 
singing. As he could not talk to her 
long at a time, he wrote letters and 
verses to her in French. At the third 
lesson, he confessed his love. The un 
suspecting child answered that if he 
would become a monk she would givo 
him her love. The sinner changed his 
dress, but not his heart, and dwelt three 
months among the brethren a wolf in 
sheep s clothing. About this time, a 
Jeper appeared to Ascelina, and bade her 
beware of her false teacher, as he was an 
instrument of Satan to rob her of her 
innocence. The girl, distressed and per 
plexed, ran and told her mother, who 
camo at once to question the leper ; but 
he was gone, and no trace of him could 
be found. Her mother took her to a 
holy priest, who cut off her hair, and 
from that time she led an ascetic life, 
which soon destroyed her beauty. Tho 
false monk soon left his cloister and re 
turned to the world. l&gt;y the advice of 
St. Bernard, Ascelina became a Cister 
cian Dun under his niece Adeline, at 
Pouligny, near the monastery of Boulan- 
c-Miirt, in Haute Marne. AA.SS., from a 
Irf/e given as contemporary by Henriquez. 

St. Asclepiodote, Sept. l ."&gt;, M. under 
Maximian. A relation of SS. Maxiuius 



and Theodotus, and put to death with 
them at a village between I hilippopolis 
and Adriauopolis in Thrace. Ascelepio- 
dote was tied to a wild bull at Adria- 
noplo; it stood quiet and did not hurt 
her. Teres, the tyrant of Thrace, had 
the three martyrs taken to a villa called 
Saltys, and there beheaded. Very soon 
after, he was struck dead by lightning. 
Tho Act* end by a prayer of the writer 
for the cessation of the persecution. 
Stilting, in AA.SS. from Greek Act*, 
believed to be contemporary and authen 
tic. In the R.M. the name is written 
ASCLEPIODOTUS, and the story seems to 
bo of three men. 

St. Asella (OCELLA, OSELLA), Dec. 6, 
V. Born c. ;W4, f between 4&lt; ;&gt; and 408. 
Friend and disciple of St. Jerome, 
whose writings are the authority for her 
story. Whether ho is to be understood 
literally or not when ho speaks of her 
as the daughter of Albina and sister of 
MAHCELLA, she seems to have been a 
member of a noble and wealthy Koinan 
Christian family. She was not more 
than ten years old when St. Athanasius 
paid his third and last visit to Home. 
His conversation made a deep impression 
on her, and being already a pious child, 
she wished to dedicate her life to tho 
service of Christ. For a long time her 
parents would not give her the rough 
brown gown worn by the women who 
devoted themselves to a life of asceticism 
and charity, so she sold her gold neck 
lace and bought tho coarse stuff, made 
tho dress secretly, and when she was 
twelve, surprised her family by appear 
ing before them in this garb of consecra 
tion. From this time she lived in great 
silenco and seclusion, inhabiting a narrow 
cell where she enjoyed the breath of 
Paradise, having one stone for a place of 
prayer and of repose. She lived on 
bread, salt, and water, sometimes fasting 
for days together. She would not go 
into society nor speak to any man. 
She worked with her hands and sang 
psalms. When she attended tho Church 
of tho Holy Martyrs she went very fast, so 
as not to bo soon. * You," writes Jerome 
to Marcella, " have seen with your own 
eyes her holy knees hardened like those 
of a camel." These austerities never 



86 



ST. ASGITH 



injured her health or her skin j she was 
over fifty when, according to Jerome, 
" with a sound body and a still sounder 
soul, she found for herself a monkish cell 
in the midst of busy Rome." In :?84, 
in one of St. Jerome s letters to St. Mar- 
cella, he praises St. Asella, and says, 
" Do not tell her what I say, for she will 
be displeased with eulogies of herself, 
but read the letter to young girls, that 
they may find in her conduct a rule of 
perfect piety. Let widows and virgins 
imitate her. Let wives make much of 
her, let sinful women fear her, and 
let bishops look up to her." St. Jerome 
highly valued Asella s affection for 
him ; he calls her an " example of 
modesty," " the ornament of virginity," 
" a flower of the Lord." To her, as one 
of the eldest and most honoured of the 
community of learned and pious women 
who so valued his instruction, he ad 
dressed the farewell letter which he 
wrote from the ship in the port of Ostia, 
by which he was leaving Rome for the 
East in ;-J85. In it he indignantly refutes 
the calumnies which called him an 
impostor and a hypocrite, and miscon 
strued his friendship with ST. PAULA and 
other friends. He bids her salute several 
of the familiar group by name, and 
among them " Albina your mother, and 
Marcella your sister." Notwithstanding 
these words, and the fact that she was 
undoubtedly on a sisterly footing in the 
house and social circle of Marcella, 
Tillcmont and some other historians and 
commentators say that this relationship 
is not to be understood literally, and 
that it is not known to what family 
Asella belonged. 

Palladius, who visited Rome in 4a~&gt;, 
says that he saw there the excellent 
Asella that virgin of Christ who had so 
holily grown old in a monastery. Ho 
calls her the gentlest of women, and says 
that she took the most loving care of a 
company and a house, where they re 
ceived and instructed new converts. 
She was then about seventy. 

R.H. St. Jerome s Lcttrrx, Free- 
mantle s edition, letters 24, 4.*&gt;. Baronius, 
Annalcft. Tillemont, ///&gt;7o//v 
Ecclesiastiqucs, xii. Baillet, 
Saints. 



St. Asgith, OSITH. 

St. Askama. *SW AOUABONIA. 

St. Aspasia, ATHAVASIA (1). 

St. Aspedia, Dec. 1 4, M. Mentioned 
in the M&lt;xrtyrology of St. J&lt;YO///&lt; . 

St. Aspida, Feb. :&gt;. r,th century. 
Related t-j St. Avitus, Archbishop of 
Vienne, who took an important part in 
the religious and theological contro 
versies of his time. His name is in the 
R.M., Feb. ."&gt;, the day of his death, which 
occurred in ~&gt;2:&gt;, and some of his poems 
and letters are extant. Aspida is men 
tioned in his Lift , but her right to the 
title of Saint is uncertain. AA.SS. &gt;SV&lt; 
FUSCIXA. 

St. Aste, Nov. I D, V. M. in Persia, 
with a man called Boithazate, and a 
great many other holy martyrs. Petin, 
Diet. Haij. 

St. Asteria, or HESTEHIA, Aug. 10, 
V. M. Patron of Bergamo. Sister of 
ST. GRATA of Bergamo, where, in the 
time of Diocletian and Maximian, they 
both buried St. Alexander. Grata was 
put to death. Astoria buried her, and 
afterwards was herself arrested, tortured, 
and beheaded. See the legend of Hes- 
teria. R.M. ]&gt;i&lt;&gt;&lt;j,-&gt;ijia EccJcs, 

St. Astrude, ArsrurDE. 

St. Astuta, Feb. 28. One of many 
martyrs at Alexandria. Henschcnius, 
in AA.SS., from Mnrt. of Iteickenau. 

St. Atalduid, Ai&gt;rAu&gt;nn. 

St. Atea, May 2:&gt;, July 5 (AETHA, 
ALEA, ATHEA, ATHY), tth century, was 
a cousin and disciple of ST. MoDWENNA. 
They lived in Ireland, and built a monas 
tery on a hill, laboured with their hands 
for their daily bread, " fall often digging 
with a mattocko and sowing seeds in 
the earth," and feeding on raw herbs. 
They came from Ireland to England 
with Luge, Brigid, and St. Ronan the 
brother of Modwenna. \Vhen they 
arrived on the Irish shore, they found 
no boat to take them across the sea. 
They prostrated themselves on tho 
ground and prayed for aid, and lo, the 
earth on which they lay was severed 
from the land and floated out to sea ; 
and, directed by an angel, they arrived 
on the coast of England. When Mod 
wenna built her monasteries, she left 
Atea in charge of Pollesworth while she 



ST. ATHANASIA 



went to Strenshalen. After her return 
from Home, Modwenna built herself aa 
oratory, dedicated to St. Andrew, on an 
island of Kent, called Scalecliff, after 
wards Andresia, and when she went back 
to Ireland she left Atea in charge of it. 
Livt 8 &lt;&gt;f //" II "" " .^"ints of . . . 
W, E.E.T.S. 

St. Atela, May 24. In Campania. 
M . of I! ( In ?/"". 

St. Athala, sometimes means ADELA 
or AUKI.AIDK, and sometimes Attala. 

St. Athna, ETHNKA. 

St. Athanasia ( 1 ), or ASPASIA, Jan. 
" 1 . M. :; 1 _ , towards the end of the per 
secution under Maximinus. She and her 
three daughters, THEODOSIA, Tm:o&lt; i 1 
and ErnoxiA, the eldest of whom was fif 
teen, were tortured and beheaded at Cano- 
pus, not far from Alexandria. They were 
encouraged by St. Cyrus, a physician 
of Alexandria, and St. John, who were 
tortured at tin- same time as Athanasia 
and In -r daughters, and put to death 
after them. They were the last martyrs 
in this, the last general persecution of 
the Christians. AA.SS. Neale, ///// 
Easti-rii f liid-i li. Martin. 

St. Athanasia &lt; J),Feb. 27. .5th cen 
tury. Wife of St. Andronicus, and com 
memorated with him, Oct. !&gt;. He was a 
silversmith of Antioch. They were rich 
in this world s goods and also in good 
works. They had one son and one 
daughter, who both died on the same day, 
when they were about twelve years old. 
Andronicus resigned himself, like Job, 
he will of God. Athanasia, overcome 
with grief, would not leave the church 

3t. Julian, where her children were 
buried; but said she would die there, 
and bo buried with them. At midnight, 
St. Julian the martyr appeared to her 
-cd as a monk. He asked her why 
she wept, and why she did not leave tho 
dead aloin-. She told him her grief. Ho 
coiuforti-d her with the assurance that 
her children were alive with Christ in 
li-e. Tho saint disappeared, and 
she understood that she had seen a 
TlBlon. She r-turned to her house and 
told everything to her husband. They 
liberated their slaves, sold their goods, 
gave most of their money to tho poor, 
and the ivst to his father-in-law, bidding 



him to show charity and hospitality to 
sick persons, monks, and pilgrims. Leav 
ing Antioch, they went to tho holy 
places at Jerusalem, and conversed with 
golly persons living in that city. Then 
they journeyed to Egypt to tho desert of 
Sceto, and visited the Abbot Daniel, who 
had a great reputation for sanctity. By 
his advice Athanasia took tho veil in a 
convent at Tabenna or in Alexandria. 
Andronicus became a monk, and re 
mained with Daniel and his brethren. 
After twelve years spent among these 
monks, Andronicus had a great longing 
to revisit Jerusalem, and with Daniel s 
permission he set out on a journey 
thither. One day, as ho sat resting 
under a palm-tree, ho saw a monk coming 
towards him. This monk was Athanasia, 
who also had been seized with an ardent 
desire to return to Jerusalem, and had 
disguised herself as a man for the pur 
pose. She recognized her husband, but 
he only saw in her a stranger of his own 
sex and profession. She was the moro 
altered of the two, her ascetic life having 
deprived her of all remains of beauty, 
and made her as black as an Ethiopian. 
Andronicus had no suspicion that her 
dress was a disguise, and they sat to 
gether and talked as two pilgrims who 
met for tho first time. Hearing that ho 
came from Daniel s monastery, Athanasia 
asked if he knew a monk there of the 
name of Andronicus. " Yes," said he, 
" I know him well." To which she re 
sponded, " May his prayers be with us." 
" Amen," answered Audronicus. As 
they were both going tho same way, 
they made the remainder of tho pil 
grimage together, and when they re 
turned to Kgypt, Andronicus proposed 
that they should live together. Atha 
nasia consented, on condition that they 
should observe a strict rule of silence. 
They lived twelve years in ono cell, 
never speaking except to say their 
prayers. During all that time Andro- 
i.i.-us did not suspect that his companion 
was tho same with whom he bad lived 
so many years at Antioch, and who had 
borne him two children. At last sho 
was attacked by fever, and Andronicns 
went in great distress for tho abbot of a 
community, begging him 



88 



ST. ATHAXASIA 



to come and pay the last duties to his 
dear brother who was about to depart. 
The dying Athanasia told her story to 
the abbot, but not to her husband. A 
few days after her death, Andronicns 
was seized with the same fever. The 
abbot, seeing him near death, told him 
who it was that had shared his cell for 
30 many years. Daniel s monks, having 
heard much of the sanctity of their 
former companion, wished to take his 
body and bury him near their own abode, 
but the brethren near whom he had spent 
his later years claimed him as their own. 
It was finally settled that the pair should 
be buried side by side, near the spot 
where they had led their silent ascetic 
life. AA.SS. 

St. Athanasia (3), Aug. 4, 14, April 
18, called in some calendars AN AST ASIA. 
J" c. 860. Abbess of Timia, in Egypt. 
Kepresented (1) weaving at a loom, a 
star over her; (2) with a star on her 
breast. 

Born in the island of Egina. Her 
parents, Nicetas and Irene, instructed 
her in the Holy Scriptures from her 
earliest childhood, and married her 
young, about 822, to an officer in the 
imperial army. He was obliged to leave 
her sixteen days after their marriage, to 
oppose the Saracens, who had come from 
Africa, and were threatening the shores 
of Greece. He was killed, and she be 
took herself to a religious life, but before 
she had made any vows, an edict was pro 
mulgated by the Emperor Michael the 
Stammerer, to oblige all marriageable 
girls and young widows to marry, on 
the ground that war and other scourges 
had depopulated the greater part of the 
Greek empire. Athanasia s parents found 
her a good religious husband, who joined 
in all her pious and charitable works. 
On Sundays and other holy days she used 
to assemble all the women of her neigh 
bourhood, and read and explain the Bible 
to them. Her husband became a monk, 
and Athanasia, having no children to 
take care of, converted her house into a 
convent, of which she was too humble to 
assume the direction, until it was forced 
upon her by the community. Austerities, 
which usually tend to make the temper 
sour and discontented, never diminished 



her sweetness and patience. After four 
years, she decided that her house was 
too near the stir of the world. With 
the assistance of a holy priest named 
Matthias, she found a more suitable 
place, where she built three churches, 
as well as a convenient house for her 
increasing community. Her convent was 
called Timia, which means a place ho 
noured or respected. In superintending 
the removal of her nuns to their new 
residence, Matthias observed that they 
were all extremely thin, and looked 
very ill. He advised St. Athanasia to 
moderate the severity of her rule, and 
she thenceforth took more care of the 
health and comfort of her spiritual 
daughters. She went to Constantinople 
to get funds for her three churches, and 
to visit the Empress THEODORA, mother 
and guardian of the Emperor Michael 
III., who was fond of receiving persons 
illustrious for sanctity. She remained 
there against her will for seven years, 
and died soon after her return to 
Timia. After her death she appeared 
in a vision to her successor, the new 
abbess, and reproached her for not 
making the prayers and alms for her 
soul that she ought to have done for 
forty days, bidding her do her duty in 
this respect, and assuring her that at 
the end of that time she would enter 
into Paradise. At the end of forty days, 
two of the nuns saw Athanasia crowned 
above the altar, and, many miracles being 
performed at her tomb, her sanctity was 
universally acknowledged. Long after 
wards her body was found fresh and 
entire, and was dressed in goodly robes 
and removed into the church. The 
Muscovites, who follow the Greek rite, 
place her fete on April IS. R.M., Aug. 
J4. AA.SS., Aug. 4. Baillet says that 
her Life is contemporary, but has passed 
through the hands of Metaphrastes. In 
the Martyroloyy of the Onlcr of St. Basil 
the Great, A.R.M., Aug. 21, she is said 
to belong to that order. Callot, Imnyes. 
Husenbeth, Emh/nnn &lt;&gt;f Saint*. Cahier, 
Caracteristiques. Die If ci lit /en 7&gt; // / /. 

The legend that explains the loom and 
star in her pictures is that one day, 
while she was still a young girl, sitting 
at her loom, she fell into an ecstasy ; a 



ST. ATTIIACTA 






brilliant star darted from heaven to her 
breast, and disappeared there, but illu 
minated her whole person as long as the 
ecstasy lasted. From that time she \vn&lt; 
a changed creature, and began to despise 
earthly objects and interests. (Stadler 
u. Heim, // / //;/ n L- .////. i 

St. Athea, ATE A. 

St. Athela, ADELA. 

St. Athelburga,ETiiELuruGA, July 7. 

St. Athora, Feb. :&gt;:*, M. in Africa. 
AA.S8. 

St. Athy, ATKA. 

St. Attala, or ATHALA, Dec. :J. f c. 
711. Represented having a well m-ar 
her, or as a corpse with one hand cut 
off. St. Attala was first abbess of the 
first monastery in Strasburg. She was 
the daughter of Adelbert, Duke of 
Alsace, by his first wife Gerlinda. He 
had her carefully trained for the duties 
of an abbess, by his sister ST. ODILA, 
and in 717, when he built the monastery 
of St. Stephen, he set her over it. She 
won the love and reverence of her own 
convent and of all the inhabitants of 
Strasburg. So highly was she venerated, 
that, after death, her body was exposed 
for five weeks, and the faithful came 
from all parts to honour her. Weren- 
trude, Abbess of Hohenburg, and a 
particular friend of St. Attala, desiring 
a relic, employed a priest, who cut off 
the right hand of the saint. Ho was 
discovered. The hand was enclosed in 
ft crystal box, and is preserved in tho 
church of St. Stephen, where it is ex 
hibited on Dec. . 5. Her black woollen 
mantle was also preserved, and was 
placed on the shoulders of each succeed 
ing abbess at her installation. A well 
in tho crypt was credited with healing 
powers in her time and for centuries 
afterwards. French and German Mar- 
tyrologies. Cahier. Guerin, Pctitn Bol- 
landisti ., xiv. 

St. Attica, Feb. I:!, V. 4th century. 
Converted by ST. ( MNMANCE AUGUSTA 
AA.SS. Stadler. 

St. Attracta, Feb. . , Aug. li 
(T.\i:.\-r.\, TAHMIATTA, TAHXUTHA, TIIA- 
ATTA L .Mli or r.th century. An Irish 
virgin, daughter of Saran, or Talan, or 
Tigernach, of royal descent in Ulster. 

The legend is that she made a vow 



of celibacy at a very early age. To 
avoid marrying in obedience to her 
parents, she left her home, accompanied 
only by her maid Mitain and her man 
servant Mochain, and came to Conuaught. 
She decided that her house must be 
where seven roads met, that she might 
entertain travellers from all directions. 
Mochain eventually discovered such a 
site for her, and there she built a church 
and monastery. In her wanderings she 
caiao to a beautiful place where St. 
Conallus, her brother or near relation, 
had his church. She sent to ask if she 
might build herself a house in the neigh 
bourhood. It happened to be Lent, and 
St. Conallus was spending the holy 
season, according to his custom, saying 
his prayers in cold water. He called 
to mind certain prophecies concerning 
the wonderful works of Attracta, and 
the fame she was destined to attain, and 
decided not to have her within his terri 
tory. He sent Dachonna (probably the 
same as ST. MACHOXNA) to give her his 
blessing, and to beg her, in the name of 
God, not to erect any building in that 
place. She was very angry. Besides 
other fierce and cruel things, she said, 
" Since you ask mo in the name of God, 
I cannot refuse. And since you order 
me to leave your lauds, I obey your 
decree. But that Conallus may feel 
how bitter is my sentence, I pray that 
no corn may ever grow on his estate, 
and that no father and sou together may 
ever serve there. I foretell that a sound 
of bells will come into your dwelling, 
which will diminish tho offerings you 
receive from tho people, or deprive you 
of them altogether." This soon hap 
pened : a monastery was built in the 
place, and took all tho tribute which 
lormerly went to St. Conallus church. 

Bee, King of Lugua, sent for Attracta 
to kill a monster which devastated his 
country. As a reward, ho gave to her 
and her successors for ever, tho land 
which had been rendered uninhabitable. 
In course of time, tho King of Con- 
naught went to war against tho men of 
Lugna, and hemmed them in by lake 
Techct. St. Attracta led them through 
tho midst of the lake, on condition that 
no one should look behind him. A boy, 



90 



ST. ATZIX 



who was the servant of the drummer, 
had the curiosity to look back. Ho was 
immediately drowned. Whereupon the 
drummer told Attracta that if he did 
not without delay have his boy back 
safe, he would slander her throughout 
the world. So she prayed for the resur 
rection of the lad.. An angel told her 
she was troubling God too much : never 
theless, she should have her wish, but 
she must ask St. Foelan to raise the 
youth. St. Foelan was lying asleep or 
dead, with a stone in each hand, and 
another in his mouth. He arose as out 
of an ecstasy, and raised the drowned 
boy to life. Many other miracles are 
told of her. 

Once on a time, Keannfaeland, King 
of Connaught, ordered that all his sub 
jects, including the clergy, should help 
to build him a beautiful castle. Attracta 
begged to be excused from this service, 
promising the king instead fair winds 
for his snips to bring beautiful things 
from unknown countries, that the king 
dom should remain in his family for 
ever, and many other advantages, which 
he so undervalued as not to accept the 
bargain. So she went in a rage to the 
forest, with St. Nathy and a few men 
and horses, to cut down trees and saw 
up the prescribed quantity of wood. 
One of her servants suggested that, in 
stead of the horses, the stags of the 
forest might as well carry the wood to 
the king so the stags came to be laden. 
Attracta pulled a few long hairs out of 
her own head ; with these she tied the 
planks on to the stags, and sent them 
off to the king. Instead of being con 
verted by the miracle, he hardened his 
heart like Pharaoh, and set his dogs at 
the stags ; but the devil entered into the 
dogs, they bit the king and queen and 
everybody who tried to defend them, 
and most of the courtiers were killed. 
The stags returned in peace to the forest, 
and the dogs were turned into stones. 

These incidents are told in a frag 
ment of a Life of this saint, which 
Colgan gives ( Feb. 1 J in his collection 
of Irish Saints. It is supposed to be 
the work of a Cistercian monk of the 
llth century, and to bo quite destitute 
of foundation. The beginning and end 



of the story are lost. Attracta appears 
in some Irish calendars on Aug. 7. 
Bntlcr and Lanigan say she was an 
Irish nun, who lived and died at a place 
still called Killaraght, which is a con 
traction of Kil Attracta, the church or 
cell of Attracta. Some accounts say 
she received the religious veil from St. 
Patrick, who lived in the 5th century, 
but Lanigan thinks she was a sister of 
St. Coemgen, and lived, in the 7th or 
late in the (Uh century, in a convent 
founded by St. Patrick a century before, 
but whicli afterwards took her name. 
There are several places in Ireland 
called Kil Attracta : this one is in Sligo. 
Sec also AA.SS. and Britanma Sancta. 

St. Atzin, ACHACHILDIS. 

St. Allbierge, ETHELBUKGA (3). 

St. Aucega, or ACCEIA, June 1, M. 
A queen of the barbarians, called in 
some martyrologies Aucias, or Auceia, 
king, commemorated with a great num 
ber of Christians martyred, either all 
at Thessalonica, or some of them there 
and some at Rome. The story given 
by Papebroch (AA.SS., June 25) of ST. 
LUCEJA, V., and St. Auceja, king of the 
barbarians, appears to be the same. 

St. Aucta, patron of Lisbon. Cahier. 

St. Auda, ALDA. 

St. Audata, March 1&gt;S, M. at 
Caesarea. AA.J38. 

St. Audex, Nov. 1H, V. Sir H. 
Nicolas, Chronology of History. 

St. Audientia, Feb. :&gt;. A holy 
woman, mother of St. Avitus. Wife 
of St. Isicius. Bollaudus is doubtful 
whether she is to be placed among the 
saints or not. AA.SS., Prsetcr. 

B. Audouvaria, Ai DOYEKA. 

B. Audovera, Aug. 17 (ANDOVERA, 
AUDOVAKIA). "f .~&gt;s:5. Queen of France, 
the first wife whom we know by name 
of Chilperic I., King of France. Wion 
says she was the daughter of a prince of 
Spain ; but perhaps he confounds her 
with ST. GALSWINTIIA, another wife of 
the same king. During the absence of 
Chilperic, Audovera gave birth to her 
fifth child, Childechinda, and, being a very 
pious woman, she was desirous to have 
her admitted as soon as possible into 
the Church by baptism. Her confiden 
tial but treacherous maid, Fredegunda, 



ST. AUGUSTA 



91 



professed great affection for her mistress 
and the infant princess, and profound 
sympathy in the queen s anxiety to have 
the child christened. Audovcra was 
much puzzled about her choice of a god 
mother. She was suro that that honour 
would cause jealousy, quarrels would 
arise, tho husbands of the offended 
ladies might give trouble to tho king, 
and she did not know what to do. In 
IK T prrpli-xity she sought advice from 
h-r slave. " What lady in France is so 
great as the queen ? " said tho designing 
Fredegunda. " No one can be jealous 
of you, or pretend to be your equal : hold 
the illustrious infant yourself." Audo- 
vera was delighted to find so clover a 
way out of the difficulty. The christen 
ing took place with great rejoicing and 
feasting, and everybody was pleased. A 
month or two after, King Chilperic came 
home victorious from his wars, and all 
the maidens went out to meet him with 
L r ;u lands, songs, and dances. Fredegunda 
took care to attract his attention to her 
self, made him compliments on his 
prowess and heroism, and announced to 
him the birth of his daughter. When 
she had coquetted with him a little, she 
said, ; There is only one sad thing about 
your triumphant home-coming." " What 
is that ? " said tho king. " Oh, I am so 
sorry about it, I hardly like to tell your 
Highness." Hero she pretended to shed 
a ti-ar. Chilperic insisted on knowing 
what was tho matter, and Fredegunda, 
with feigned reluctance, said, " Alas, my 
lord, tin: re is nobody for you to sleep 
witli now." "But you said tho queen 
was well." " Ali, yes, the queen is well ; 
but she has become your sister. For 
getting tho duty she owed to her king 
and husband, she has become godmother 
"iir child. Tho holy bishops will 
tell you, any priest will tell you, you 
cannot have a woman for your wife who 
is godmother to your child. "Very 
well," said tho king ; " if I cannot sleep 
with her, I will sleep with you." So 
Andovera was deposed, and went to a 
niona&lt;t ry at Lo Mans, taking her 
hter with her. Fredegunda was 
.nioti-d to IHT place, and nine years 
alt.-rwards, in 583, she had them both 
murdered in their retreat. Fredegund i 



was Chilperic s mistress for many years ; 
but not until he hud married other 
wives, and not until she had committed 
other crimes, did she become his wife ; 
and eventually she had him nmrd&lt; n 1 
too. Bucelinus calls Audovera " Martyr," 
and Wion calls her "Saint." Am -d&lt; 
Thierry, in his Her it* MerovtngieH^gvrei 
the history of Fredegunda s plot. 

The little princess, who had been tho 
tool used to work her mother s mis 
fortune, was happy in being put to death 
with her in her innocence. Basine, an 
older daughter of Audovcra, was cruelly 
treated by Fredegunda, and after passing 
through depths of misery and degrada 
tion, was placed, against her will, in the 
monastery of Sainte Croix, built by ST. 
(1) at Poitiers, where ST. 
(5) was abbess. She proved a 
very bad nun, and gave a great deal of 
trouble. Of the three sons of Chilperic 
by Audovera, Clovis and Mcrovce who 
became the second husband of Brune- 
hault, fell victims to the malice of 
Fredegunda. 

St. Audrey, ETHELKEDA. There is 
also a St. Audrey or Aldricus (Oct. 10), 
Bishop of Sens, i th century. 

St. Audru, AUSTKUDE. 

St. Aufidia, May ti, M. at Milan 
with ST. JUDITH and several others. 
Petin, Dirt. Ilu.,. 

St. Augia i 1 i, May 14, M. at Apt, 
in Provence, probably under one of the 
heathen Emperors. Claimed as a member 
of tho family of Salebron, or Sabron ; 
but they settled in France not earlier 
than the 1 \ th century. AA.SS. 

St. Augia ( _ ), Sept. 25 (AoiA, AIGE, 
ArsTitKciLD). Sister of St. Aunarius. 
Mother of St. Loup. 

St. Augusta ( 1 ), July i&gt;s, V. M. 
AAJSS. 

St. Augusta (2), Nov. 24, M. Said 
to be tho wife of the Emperor Maxinaian,. 
and martyred with ST. CATHERINE. 



St. Augusta (3), March 27. Patron 
and native of Serravalle, and worshipped 
there from time immemorial. Repre 
sented on a funeral pile holding a sword. 
Frightful atrocities were committed by 
barbarians, who ravaged Italy from 
about 4 &lt; M i until tho time of Charlemagne. 



92 



ST. AUGUSTICIA 



Somewhere during that time lived Mau- 
clrucco, father of Augusta, aud ruler of 
part of the territory of Friuli. He fixed 
his residence at Serravalle, and had a 
palace and fortress on a rock, since called 
by the pious natives St. Augusta. Man- 
clrucco would have been great had he 
not tarnished his fame by the murder of 
his daughter. Incensed at her conver 
sion to Christianity, ho subjected her to 
sundry tortures. She was suspended 
over a fire between two trees. The fire 
failed to injure her. He then tried in 
vain to have her broken on a wheel ; and, 
finally, had her beheaded. A. Minucci, 
1 V//i di Santa Augusta Vergine e Martire, 
Venice, 1754. AA.SS. 

St. Augusticia, or AUGUSTINA, May 
8, M. at Constantinople, with St. Aca- 
cius. See AGATHA. AA.SS. 

St. Augustina, AUGUSTICIA. 

St. Aularia, EULALIA of Barcelona. 

St. Aulaye, EULALIA of Barcelona. 

St. Aulazie, EULALIA of Barcelona. 

St. Aunes. ST. AGNES is so called 
an Languedoc. 

St. Aupaies, ALPAIS of Cudot. 

St. Aura, AUREA of Paris. 

St. Aurea (1), or CHRYSE (Golden), 
Aug. 24, V. M. 3rd century. Repre 
sented, in Callot s Images, being thrown 
into the sea with a great stone tied to 
her neck. A lady of high rank and 
imperial descent, tortured and drowned 
at Ostia, in the reign of Claudius. Her 
body was washed ashore, and buried by 
48 1. Nonnus. Many other martyrs are 
commemorated with her, amongst them 
her slave Sabinian. R.M. Stilting 
thinks she is the same as AUREA (3). 
AAJ38. 

St. Aurea (2;, July 14, M. at Cor 
dova, under Nero. The town of Soria, 
or Santoria, on the Douro, is named 
after this saint, or ST. AURELIA (2), or 
ST. AURIA. 

St. Aurea Of), Sept. 5, M. about 
2.") 2. Patron of Ostia. Aurea appears 
4o have been one of those women who, 
during the persecutions, used to visit the 
Christians in prison, and in every pos 
sible way minister to the needs of the 
suffering followers of Christ. She ac 
companied St. Maximus, a Christian 
priest, and his deacon Archelaus when 



they went to visit the prefect Censurinus, 
who was imprisoned at Ostia. While 
they were all praying together and sing 
ing hymns, the fetters of the prisoner 
were suddenly unloosed. Seeing this 
miracle, the guards were converted. 
Seventeen of them were baptized by St. 
Maximus. St. Aurea was godmother. 
Soon afterwards St. Cyriacus, the bishop, 
confirmed them in the Faith. The ne\v 
converts led a holy life, after the rule of 
the early Church, and many miracles 
were done by them. When the Emperor 
heard that they had raised the dead to 
life, he said they were using magic arts, 
and had them all apprehended and com 
manded to sacrifice to the gods. Cruel 
tortures were used to compel them to do 
so ; and at last they were led to the arch 
that stood in front of the theatre, and 
there beheaded. The Christians buried 
them, and raised a monument at Ostia to 
their memory. This story agrees with 
secular history wherever the comparison 
can be made. Stilting thinks this is the 
true story of the St. Aurea who in other 
fictitious Acts is said to have been thrown 
into the sea. AA.SS. 

St. Aurea (4), or AUUEUS, May 2n, 
M. at Rome or Ostia. Commemorated 
with SS. BASILA and NUSCA. 

St. Aurea (5), July 22, M. at An- 
tioch. 

St. Aurea (6), Oct. 31, V. M. (AD- 
VISA, AVIA ; in French AVEZE, AVOIE, 
EVE). Daughter of ST. GERESINA, Queen 
of Sicily. Sister of SS. BABILIA, VIC 
TORIA, JULIA (24), and ADRIAN. Niece of 
ST. DAKIA. Cousin of ST. URSULA, and 
companion of her famous journey and 
martyrdom. 

St. Aurea (7), or AURA, Oct. 4. -fOOii. 
Patron of Paris. Represented (1) with 
the corpse of the cellarer whom she 
raised to life; (2) holding a nail, in 
allusion to her penance. Born in Syria. 
Her parents were Maurinus and Quiretia, 
Christians. After their death she gave 
herself up to religious austerities for a 
time in her own country, until, finding 
too many ties to the world among her 
friends and acquaintances, she took ship 
without informing them of her design, 
and arrived in France during the reign 
of Dagobert, the seventh king of the 



ss. AlKKLIA AM) NEOMISIA 



French. When she found that she had 
come to a country where there were 
many houses of religious retirement and 
hundreds of holy virgins serving God in 
them, she was filled with thankfulness. 
She went to Paris, where many holy men, 
secular as well as ecclesiastic, shed lustre 
on the court by their wisdom and virtue. 
Among these were St. Arnonl or Arnulf, 
mayor of the palace ; St. Rudo, treasurer 
of France ; St. ( hven, a great and valiant 
commander under Dagobert ; St. Eloi 
(Eligius), a goldsmith of Limousin, who 
was called, for his charity, " The Father 
of tho Poor." To him the king had 
given a fine largo house in Paris, which 
he transformed into a Benedictine 
nunnery, and built in it a church dedi 
cated in the names of SS. Martial and 
VALERIA, patrons of his native province. 
A&lt; tho virtues and piety of St. Aurea 
could no more bo hidden than the light 
of the sun, St. Eloi soon found her out, 
and made her abbess of his new convent, 
though she would have chosen to obey 
rather than to command. Here she 
ruled over three hundred nuns. One 
day, in the chapel of the nunnery, a cer 
tain deacon read the Gospel so badly 
that tho good abbess lost all patience, 
seized tho book out of his hand, and read 
it herself. Afterwards she acknowledged 
with deep regret the irreverence of her 
conduct, and imposed upon herself, as 
a penance, to recite the whole of the 
hundred and fifty psalms daily, seated in 
a chiir with nails in it specially con 
structed for discomfort. This penance 
she accomplished with great devotion, 
having resigned, for the time, her office 
[&gt;f abbess. A nun named Deda, who had 
tho whole charge of the revenue and ex 
penditure of the community, died while 
Au ri -a was absent at a farm which formed 
part of tho possessions of tho convent. 
Xo one else understood tho business, and 
great trouble and loss were threatened 
to the nuns. Three days after Deda s 
death A un-a came homo and raised her 
to life. 1 )eda gave a satisfactory account 
of her stewardship, and set the affairs of 
the house in onlrr. Some time afterwards 
she departed in peace. During tho pes 
tilence that ravu^ -d r ranrr in "&gt; i,moro 
-han half of tho nuns died. St, l .l&gt;i. 



Bishop of Noyon, Tournay, and Yer- 
mandois, who had died tho year before,, 
appeared robed in white, to a young man y 
and bade him go and tell tho abbess 
Aurea to come to him. She then died, 
aged sixty-eight, having been abbess 
thirty-three years. E.M. Lfyende 1) 
AA.SS. Butler. Life of St. Eloi, Dec. 
1, on tho authority of St. Owen. 

St. Aurea (), July 19, V.M. 850. 
Sister of Adolphus and John, the first 
martyrs in the persecution at Cordova, 
under Abderrahman. Several years after 
their glorious death, Aurea, like St. 
Peter, denied her Lord in tho moment of 
danger, but repented, and publicly pro 
fessed her regret. She was slain with a 
sword and hung on a gibbet with her 
head down. R.M. AA.SS., from St. 
Eulogius s contemporary account of this 
persecution. Cahier, Cnracteristiquea. 

St. Aureca, Jan. 2, M. 

St. Aurelia (1), Dec. 2, V. Towards 
the end of the Oth century, St. Colum- 
banus, St. Gall, and some other Irish- 
Scots went on a mission to revive Chris 
tianity in parts of tho continent where- 
tho people had relapsed into paganism. 
Amongst the ruins of a little city called 
Brigantium, now Bregentz, about i5h&gt;, 
they found an oratory dedicated to St. 
Aurelia, near which they built themselves 
cells. St. Gall preached to the people 
and destroyed their idols, and St. Colum- 
bauus, to tho satisfaction of tho people 
who returned to the true Faith, placed 
the relics of St. Aurelia under the altar 
on which he said Mass. R.M. This 
Aurelia is probably the same as VALERIA 

(12). 

St. Aurelia (2), Oct. 12 or 1:1, M. 
with St. Lupus, under tho Saracens, at 
Cordova. Tho town of Soria, or San- 
toria, is named after this saint, or Sr. 
AriiKA (2), or ST. AUKIA. AAJ3S. 

SS. Aurelia (:&gt;) and Neomisia, 
Sept. 2.\ VV. at Anagui, in Italy. Suy~ 
sken says probably in tho beginning of 
the llth century. Mas Latrio says per 
haps in the !&gt;th century. They were 
born in Asia. On tho death of their 
parents, contrary to tho wishes of their 
n-Iations, they made a vow of virginity, 
and gave their inheritance to tho poor. 
They visited tho holy places of .Syria 



ST. AURELIA 



and Palestine, went to the tombs of the 
Apostles at Rome, and received the 
Pope s benediction. In the neighbour 
hood of Capua they were taken prisoners 
by the Saracens, who demanded that they 
should renounce their religion. As they 
refused, they were beaten with great 
cruelty. But a frightful thunderstorm 
caused the barbarians to flee and leave 
their victims. The saints then went to 
Macerata, two miles from Anagni, where 
they were well received by a pious man, 
and, while they were spending the night 
hours in prayer, they died. The bells of 
Anagni rang and other miracles , mani 
fested the sanctity of the departed. II. M. 
Suysken, in AA.S8. 

St. Aurelia (4), Oct. ir&gt;, Y. f 1027. 
Princess of France. Recluse. Patron 
of Ratisbon. Specially honoured at 
Strasburg. She is said, but not with 
certainty, to have been daughter to Hugh 
Capet. Bucelinus says she was probably 
daughter of Lothaire, nephew of Louis 
d Outremer. She was very beautiful and 
was promised to Elwein, a young prince 
related to the king. Preferring a soli 
tary religious life, she fled in disguise to 
Oermany, and betook herself to St. Wolf 
gang, who recognized her. He built her 
a hermitage, where she lived unknown 
for fifty- two years. Her cell was after 
wards converted into a chapel, and dedi 
cated in the name of St. Andrew. She 
has been supposed to be sister of ST. 
EDIGNA, who, however, is generally 
thought to have lived in the next century. 
Martin, from B. Gonon s Percn (V Occident. 
Raderus, Bavaria Sancta. Du Saussaye. 
Mart. Gallicanum. 

St. Aurelia (r&gt;), Oct. i:&gt;, V. (EM.). 
Tradition says she was a native of Stras 
burg and companion of ST. UIISULA. She 
died of fever outside her native city. A 
certain King Philip tried to open her 
sarcophagus, was seized with madness, 
ate his own hands and feet, and so died. 
AA.SS. 

B. Auria, or OKIA, March 11, V. 
fabout HOn. Born at Villa Villayo, 
near Mansilla, six leagues from St. Emi- 
liano. Daughter of Garcia Nunnio and 
Amunna. Auria was given to piety, 
charity, and asceticism from her earliest 
years. She took the veil when young, and 



went to live with some women of kindred 
tastes, in a retreat adjoining the Bene 
dictine monastery of St. Emiliano de Suso, 
according to the custom of the time, which 
permitted a community of consecrated 
virgins to live near a house for monks. 
She was favoured with celestial visions, 
and the fame of her sanctity spread over 
all the country. The abbot and two 
monks attended her death-bed : her 
mother was also present, and died a few 
days after her. A. sepulchre was hewn 
for her in the rock, and there she and her 
mother were buried. Their tomb, some 
what defaced by damp, was to be seen 
some hundreds of years afterwards, in 
the church of St. Emiliano de Suso. 
Sandovellius adds that the town of Soria 
on the Douro (Durium), near the ruins 
of Numantia, is a contraction of Saint 
Oria, and is so called from this saint. 
Henschenius and Papebroch believe it to 
be older, and think it more likely that 
the name is derived from ST. AUKEA (2), 
martyr at Cordova under Nero, or ST. 
AUKELIA (2), martyr at Cordova under 
the Saracens. AA.SS., from Sando 
vellius, Ancient Monument*. 

St. Auriga, Jan. 2, M. in Ethiopia, 
with SS. CLAUDIA and RUTILA. AA.SS., 
from St. Jerome s Mtortyrology. 

St. Ausonia, one of the martyrs of 
Lyons, who died in prison. See BLAN- 

DINA. 

St. Aussille, AUXILIA. 

St. Austell, or AWSTLE, whose feast 
is on Trinity Sunday, is supposed to be 
the same as HAWSTYL, the twenty-fifth 
daughter of Brychan. Arnold Forster. 
See ST. ALMHKDA. 

St. Austreberta (ANBTBEBEBT, Eus- 
THEBEHGA), Feb. t, 10,1&lt;&gt;, Oct. H&gt; (trans 
lation), V. Abbess. "J" 7(:&gt;. Patron of 
Montreuil, in Picardy. Represented ( 1 i 
plunging her arm into an oven, in allu 
sion to the legend that as her broom 
was burnt and she had to sweep the oven 
just before putting in the bread, she went 
in and dusted it with her sleeves ; ( 2 
with an ass, perhaps to denote the 
humility with which, though of high 
rank, she performed the meanest offices 
of the convent. 

Daughter of Vaufroi, mayor of the 
palace under Childeric, or Dagobert II. 



ST. AUSTRUDE 



Her mother was ST. FUA.MI:* HII.HK, or 
FKAMKIH:. Austreberta was born at 
Therouane, iu Belgium. It is asserted 
that, at the moment of her birth, a super 
natural light shone in the room, a sweet 
&lt;&gt;! ur filled the neighbourhood, and a 
white dove, which had been seen to Hy 
all about the town, finally settled on the 
head of the new-born child. Her vow 
of celibacy was confirmed by the appari 
tion of a veil descending on her head as 
she looked at herself in a well. Her 
father having promised her in marriage 
tit a young nobleman, she fled and hid 
herself. Finding tho roads flooded and 
bridges washed away by the river Cange, 
she walked on tho water. She received 
the religious veil from St. Omer, Bishop 
of Therouane, who then restored her to 
her parents. She lived the life of a nun 
in their house, and after a time betook 
herself, with their approval, to the con 
vent of Port on the Sommo, where Ber- 
goflede was abbess. Austreborta was 
almost immediately elected prioress. She 
was afterwards abbess of a new convent 
in Normandy : its name is unknown ; it 
was built by Amelbert for his daughter. 
Some of the nuns, having tried and failed 
to poison St.. Austroberta, accused her of 
cruelty to the said daughter of Amel 
bert, of wasting tho goods of tho com 
munity, and of other offences. Ho came 
and reproached Austreberta bitterly. In 
his ungovernable rage he drew his sword. 
She presented her neck, and thus caused 
Arnelbert to recover from his fury and 
honour her saintly courage and humility. 
She is said to have restored to life a 
nun who had] been killed through her 
own disobedience. J icing unable to 
manage these refractory nuns, she com- 
pli-d with tho request of St. Filibert, 
Al.hot oi .himiegcs, to undertake tho care 
of the new convent he had built at 
Tiivilly, in the district of Oaux, in Xor- 
inandy. It was afterwards destroyed in 

invasion of the Normuns, and a h&lt;- 
for Benedictine monks was built on tho 
spot in later times. /, ..!/. Baillot 
her LI/-, by a writer almost contem 
porary, is fairly reliable. Martin, from 
Surius. I hitler. Bollandus. 

St. Austregild, A&lt;;i.\, mother 
Loup. 



St. Austrude, Oct. 17 

AV-TKUSK, ASTKI-J.I:, Aruur. Q0TIU . V. 
Abbessof Laon. "f M SS or 7&lt;&gt;7. l)aught-r 
of B. Blaudin or Bason and ST. S \i..\- 
HKUGA. Born in tho diocese of Toul, in 
Lorraine, about &lt;&gt;:54. She was c&gt; 
crated to God before her birth by her 
mother. When Austrude was three 
years old, St. Salaberga, with her hus 
band s consent, left her home and became 
a nun. At tho age of twelve St. Aus- 
trudo was asked in marriage by Landrail, 
a rich young nobleman. Her father left 
the decision of the matter to her, and 
she said she had already chosen an im 
mortal Husband. Accordingly, she at 
once took the veil in the double monas 
tery of St. John the Baptist, at Laoii. 
It was built and governed by her mother. 
She gave such proofs of piety and capa 
bility, that on Salaberga s death she was 
chosen to succeed her as abbess, at the 
early age of twenty. She declined the 
office on the plea of her youth and inex 
perience, but as the whole community 
demanded her appointment, she was 
obliged to accept tho post in obedience 
to tho King of France and tho Bishop 
of Laon. The murder of her brother, 
B. Baldwin, was a great grief to her. 
The same enemies who had plotted his 
assassination accused St. Austrude ,tO 
King Thierry III., of favouring tho party 
of tho unfortunate Dagobert II., son of 
St. Sigebert, who had been killed in 
in the war against Thierry. Ebroin, 
mayor of the palace, was much incensed 
against her, and was only convinced of 
her innocence by tho apparition of a 
globe of fire above the abbey, where 
upon ho became her friend and protector. 
Soon afterwards she had a narrow escape 
from assassination. Her intended mur 
derer, being touched by finding her 
engaged in prayer, confessed his sin, and 
obtained her forgiveness. In a civil 
br.iil, h.-r abbey was in great danger of 
In -ing pillaged, for Ebrohard burned a 
great part of the town of Laon, and for 
cibly possessed himself of the keys of 
tho abbey; but in the moment of greatest 
l- ril, its inhabitants learned that they 
were saved by the death of Kbrohard. 
Aiistnt le s troubles were, however, not 
ended, for her own bishop. Madelgar or 



90 



ST. AUTORICIA 



Mauger, wanted to appropriate to himself 
her abbey, although it had been built 
by her family entirely at their own 
expense. She had recourse to Pepin, the 
new mayor of the palace, who took her 
part. Baillet. Butler. AA.SS. 

St. Autoricia, Dec. 1&lt;&gt;, V. M. Ho 
noured with ST. TEUTULLA at Algiers. 
Guerin, from the French Mart. 

St. Auxilia, or AUSSILLE, Sept. 4, V. 
M. Worshipped at Thil and Precy, in 
Burgundy. AA.SS., from Castellanus. 
Petin, Diet. Hay. Chatelain, Martyrologie 
Universe!. 

Auxiliary Saints. Represented as a 
group of fourteen, each with an emblem. 
Among the fourteen are three women, 
BARBARA (1), CATHERINE (1), and 
MARGARET (1). I have seen a print 
in which ST. AGNES (2) also figured. 
There is no authority for supposing the 
Auxiliary Saints to be more powerful or 
more benevolent than other saints. The 
custom of resorting specially to their 
patronage is supposed to have begun in 
Germany, where they are called Hul- 
freichende. The men s names are : Bla- 
sius, bishop of Sebaste, M. George, the 
great Martyr. Giles, abbot. Denis, M. 
Erasmus, bishop, M. Vitus, M. Cyri- 
acus, deacon, M. Pantaleon, physician, 
M. Eustace, M. Acacius, or Agath- 
angelos, bishop of Antioch. Christopher, 
giant, M. To these, Magnus, abbot, is 
sometimes added. Wetzer and Welte, 
Diet. TJtc vloyiquCj article by Stemmer. 

B. Ava, or AVIA, April 20, V. 9th 
century. She was blind, and gave large 
gifts to many churches and shrines where 
she prayed to receive her sight. She 
was told by an angel that it should be 
given to her if she would pray at the 
sepulchre and relics of ST. RAINFREDE, 
at Dennain, or Dinant sur 1 Escant, in 
Hainault. She therefore bestowed all 
her property on the church there, and 
took the veil in the convent where that 
saint had been first abbess. Ava is 
sometimes said to be one of the nine 
sisters of St. Rainfrede. Bucelin says 
she was second abbess of Dinan, near 
Valenciennes ; daughter of Adelbert, 
Count of Austrofandia, and Regina, niece 
of King Pepin. AA.SS. 

St. Avace, AVATIA. 



St. Avangour, Feb. 25. ST. WAL- 
BURGA is worshipped under this name in 
Touraine. 

St. Avatia, or AVAC-E, June 20. She 
lived in the valley of Agordia, or Agor- 
dino, where she is worshipped in a 
church dedicated in her honour ; it is 
between Belluno and Feltri, in Venetia. 
She received St. Luxan, bishop of Brixen, 
and ministered to him when he was 
driven out of his see. This is men 
tioned in Ferrarius Catalogue of Italian 
Saints. Papebroch, in AA.SS. 

St. Avaugourg, or AVONGOURG. ST. 
WALBURGA is so called in some parts of 
Poitou and Touraine. 

St. Ave. French for AVIA. 

St. Avellia, AVETTIA. 

St. Avenia, Oct. 22. ith century. 
Sister or wife of St. Benedict, abbot. 
They were natives of Patras, in the 
Morea, and left their country with nine 
other religious persons bound by a com 
mon vow. In the time of Charlemagne 
they settled at Macerac, in Bretagne. 
Benedict lived to a great age, and was 
buried in his own oratory, before the 
middle of the ( Jth century. Victor de 
Buck, in AA.SS. 

St. Aventiana, VALENTIANA. 

St. Avetria, AVETTIA. 

St. Avettia, May 28, M. at Rome, 
Her name, sometimes written AVELLIA 
and AVETRIA, appears in a list of martyrs 
this day in the Aartyrology of St. Jerome.. 
Henschenius, in AA.SS. 

St. Aveze, AVIA (2;. 

St. Avia (1 ), March i&gt;. The holy 
grandmother. M. by the sword, with 
her husband, their son and daughter-in- 
law, or daughter and son-in-law, and 
two grandchildren. Commemorated by 
the Greek Church. AA.SS. 

St. Avia (2), Oct. 21 (ADVISA, AUREA, 
AVE, AVEZE, AVOIE, EVE), M. of vir 
ginity. Date uncertain. She was killed 1 
by barbarians. Local tradition said that 
one of the ships containing the com 
panions of ST. URSULA was wrecked at 
Boulogne, in Picardy ; St. Avia survived 
the wreck, and lived as a recluse in a 
wood near Diverna, four leagues from 
Boulogne. Other accounts say she was 
a hermit there at a rather later date. 
Perhaps the same as AUKEA (6). AA.SS-. 



ST. I5AIHTA 



B. Avia - 3 . A\\. 

St. Avis, Hi:i wiG. 

St. Avida, May 7, M. in Africa. 
Studler. 

St. Avina, May 2, V. M. Stadler. 

St. Avita i 1 ), Aug. L l, M. in Italy. 
AAJ38. 

St. Avita i - i, consin and disciple of 
Si. MI.I.AMA (2). Palladius (cap. L36) 
testifies that ho saw the Blessed Avita, 
wife (f Aprinianus, and their daughter 
Eunomia, and tliat they were converted 
from a life of luxury and pleasure, and 
became worthy to sleep in Christ free 
from sin. 

St. Avoie i 1 ), May 2. Honour* d 
in P.retagne and at Paris. Chastelain 
says she is, perhaps, same as ADVISA. 
Compare AIKKA &lt; (}). 

St. Avoie ( - i. HEDWIG. 

St. Avrince, AI-HINCIA. 

Awegnente Ubaldini, CLARA 
UBALDINL 

St. Awstle, AUSTELL. 

St. Axiosa. See FAITH, HOPE, and 
CHARITY, 

St. Axitiana, June 2&lt;i. Penitent. 
Wife of Altalius, a Koman. She was 
converted from a sinful life by the 
preaching -of St. Peter the Apostle, and 
honoured in the Abyssinian Church. 
Papebroch, in AA.SS., Prsetcr. 

St. Aya, April 18 (AiA, AIE, AYE). 

T ".i. Invoked in law-suits. Wife 
^t. Kidulph. She has been styled 
Duchess of Lorraine, Countess of Hai- 
nault, of Lobbes, of Cambrai, and of 
Ardennes ; but these principalities did 
not exist in her time. In G&lt;&gt;5 St. 
Hidulph became a monk at Lobbes, and 
Aya, a nun under ST. WALTHUDE, at 
rilocus, afterwards Mons. She pre 
sented to this monastery her lands of 



Ximy, Braim-le-Willotte (now 
I Iraine-le-Cointe ), and Maisieres. About 
eighty years after her deatli some of 
her relations applied to the authorities 
of the land for a restitution of the family 
estates. The title-deeds had been lost. 
By desire of the nuns, the litigants and 
other persons assembled with the court 
at the tomb of the saint. One of the 
nuns said, in a loud voice, " Great Saint, 
they wish to take from us Guesmes, 
Nimy, Maisii-res, and Braine, which you 
gave to us. Speak in favour of your 
daughters, and confirm the gifts you 
made in your life." A clear and dis 
tinct voice came from the tomb, and was 
heard by everybody present, saying, " I 
ratify all these gifts which I made to 
the Church." Coret, Le TriompJie de 
, Mous, 1G74. Biofjrapkic Beige. 



St. Ayesia, AESIA. 

St. Aza ( 1 ), Dec. 13. Honoured with 
St. AN ASTASIA. Grseco-Slav. Calendar. 

St. Aza (2 ), April 1!&gt;. Daughter of 
St. Lazarus, a king in that commodious 
region " the East." They came from 
their own country to Rome to venerate 
the tombs of the Apostles. Then, 
having visited some of the most famous 
places of religious resort in France, they 
settled down as hermits near the mon 
astery of Moyen-Moutier, in Lorraine, 
where they died. Their relics worked 
miracles, and were brought to light in 
the llth century. Guerin. P.B. 

St. Azarie, patron of a church at 
(ilaiic. Mas Latrie, Trhor. 

St. Azelie, ADA. 

St. Azelie, ASELLA. 

St. Azenor, Dec. 7. Princess of Leon, 
in Brotagne. Gth or 7th century. Mas 
Latrie, Tw 



B 



St. Babet, ELI/AHETH or ISAJ:I:I.. 



St. Babila, &lt;-r MMUI.IA, &gt;r r&gt;M .Yi.i,\, 

daughter of ST. GKBASDIB. &gt; CI.MI.A. 

St. Babilla. Sometimes means BAL- 
r.is A. 



St. Badechild, RATHILDB. 

Bagan and Eugenia &lt; -i i, Jan. 22, 
W. Neale, from the Anmnio-Gioryian 

St. Bahuta, Nov. 2&lt;, Widow, M. 
r. 843, A great number of Christians 



St. Babion, patron of a church in 1 martyrdom with St. Narscs, 



31 ;is 



, Triwr. 



r.i^h-ip of Sciaharcadat, in lleth-&lt; -riaa, 

Ji 



98 



ST. BAICHE 



in Persia. Among them wer6 Baliuta, 
widow, THECLA, DANACHA, TATONA, 
MAMA, MAZACHIA, and ANNA, virgins of 
Beth-Seleucia ; ABIATA, HATES, and 
MAMLACHA, virgins of Beth-Geriua. 
Pctits BoU)idi*icx. 

St. Baiche, Nov. 20. A Persian 
nun. Neale, quoting the Annotio- 
G con /in a Calendar. 

St. Balbina (i ), March ;n, V. M. 
Patron against scrofula. ~\" !;&gt;&lt;&gt;. Bepre- 
sented holding chains. Daughter of St. 
Quirinus, M., a Roman tribune, who was 
persuaded by St. Hermes, prefect of the 
city, and at that time a prisoner for the 
sake of his Christian faith, to visit St. 
Alexander, the Pope, who was also in 
prison. Quirinus said to Alexander, " I 
have a grown-up daughter, and I wish 
to have her married. She is very pretty, 
but she is disfigured by lumps and sores 
on her neck. If you can cure her, I 
and all my household will believe in 
your God and be baptized." Alexander 
said, " If you will take the fetters off my 
neck and put them on hers, she will be 
cured." Quirinus did so, and Alexander 
blessed them both. A boy then appeared 
to Balbina, bearing a torch and telling 
her she was cured, and she was to have 
no earthly husband, but to be the bride 
of Christ. When he had said this, he 
disappeared, and Balbina was healed of 
her sores and was baptized with Quiri 
nus, Exuperia her mother, and all their 
household. As Balbina often kissed the 
fetters that had cured her, Alexander 
said, " Do not kiss these bonds, but seek 
for the chains of my master, St. Peter, 
and kiss them." Then Balbina sought 
them with great diligence, and at last 
found them. ST. THKODOKA, sister of 
the Prefect Hermes, entreated Balbina 
to give her the chains, which she did. 
At that time Aurelian, being enraged 
against the Christians, sent soldiers to 
take all the prisoners who had been 
baptized, and put them in an old ship, in 
which they were sent out to sea, tied 
together by their hands, with stones 
round their necks, and the ship was 
sunk. St. Balbina was among them. 
Other accounts do not mention her 
martyrdom, but say she was buried with 
her father in the Via Appia, in the 



cemetery of Pretextatus, which is some 
times called by her name on account of 
the church built there in her honour by 
St. Mark, Pope ( :\ M). EM. AA.SS. 

B. Balbina ( 2 ), March J J . O.S.F. 
Kith century. Niece of ST. CLAKA (2). 
Sister of B. AMATA, who was one of St. 
Clara s first nuns. Their father was 
Martini de Corano. Balbina joined the 
ne\v community in its second year, and 
was eventually first abbess of the second 
convent of the Order of St. Clara at 
Spello. Balbina and Aniata are men 
tioned in the Franciscan Marti/roloyy. 
Jacobilli, DC Sanctis Utnbrise. AA.SS., 
Prsetcr. Mrs. Oliphant, Francis of 
Axsisi. 

St. Balda, Dec. 9, Y. Third Abbess 
of Jouarre, in the diocese of Meaux. 
After having been a nun for some years 
under her nieces, ST. THEODECHILD and 
ST. AILBERT, who were successively 
Abbesses of Jouarre, she succeeded Ail- 
bert in that office about &gt;H&lt;&gt;, and died at 
a great age in the odour of sanctity. 
Ferrarius, Cdtaloyus Sanctorum. Buce- 
liuus. Lechner. 

St. Baldechild, BATHILDE. 

St. Baldegund, Feb. 10 (BAUDE- 
(JONDE, WALDEGUND). Between the 
middle of (5th and middle of 8th cen 
turies. A Benedictine abbess in France, 
mentioned in several old martyrologies. 
AA.SS. Boll. Bucelinus, Men. Ben. 

St. Balsamia, Oct. 25, Nov. i&lt;; 
(BALZAMIE, BAUSAME, BAT /ANNK, Nou- 
i;i&lt; ]:). 5th century. Balsamia was the 
mother of St. Celsinus, or Soussiu, whose 
festival is held on Oct. 25 at Kheims, 
Nov. It) at Laon. She was the nurse of 
St. licmigius, or llemi, and is therefore 
generally called Sainte Norrice, and by 
this name the collegiate church at 
Iiheims was dedicated in her honour. 
In the Breviary of Iiheims her worship 
is prescribed for Nov. 10. AA.SS. 
Chastelain, Yoc. H&lt;i&lt;/. Petit* Bollcmdisb t. 

St. Baltilda, BATHILDB. 

B. Baptista Varani, or CAMILLA 
( 1 i, May 31. O.S.F. f 1527. Her 
family were princes of Cameriuo, in 
Umbria. Her father, Julius Cajsar 
Yarano, or Yerano, served with distinc 
tion, first in the wars of Yenicc, and 
afterwards under Matthias Corvinus, 



ST. 1JA1MJAHA 



99 



King &lt;&gt;f Hungary, and was at one time 
Viceroy of Naplee f&gt;r King Ferdinand. 
Her mother was Joanna Malatesta of 
Kiiuini. They had four sons and one 
daughter, called at first Camilla. She 
was born in troubled times. Two of In r 
father s brothers, with their sons, had 
been put to death for being implicated 
in a conspiracy. In 14S1 Camilla took 
the veil at Urbino, and with it the name 
of Baptista. After a few years she 
returned to Camerino, and was made 
abbess of the nuns of the Order of ST. 
CLAIIA there. She wrought miracles, 
and was revered as a saint by the people 
of Camerino during her life. She was 
a mystic, and received many marks of 
divine favour. She was carried in the 
spirit by two angels to the foot of the 
cross, and remained there two months. 
Christ placed three lilies on her breast. 
She had revelations of the mental suffer 
ings of Christ, and wrote an account of 
them. 

In 1 :&gt;&lt; _ the Camerentines gave them 
selves up to Pope Alexander VI. His 
son, Crcsar Borgia, cruelly slaughtered 
IJaptista s father, who had ruled virtu 
ously for nearly half a century, and 
three of his sons ; the youngest survived. 
his father having sent him with the 
treasure to Venice at the beginning of 
the war. He was eventually reinstated 
is his possessions, and, after the death of 
Alexander, the two following Popes con 
firmed him in the principality or duke 
dom of Camerino. In 1 .M 7, on the death 
&lt;! Baptista, this brother, John Mary, 
made a magnificent funeral in her 
honour, and the people began at once 
utrate her as a great saint. 

Papebroch, in AA.SS., from her auto 
biography, written by order of her con- 
H&lt;r life lias been written in 
Italian by ( inmrella, and also by Passino. 

St. Barbada, P.\n.\ I .AKHATA. 

St. Barbalaba. or BAKBALADI \. .A I. 

at Antioch. .1.1. NX. 

St. Barbara ( I , Dec. -i, Hi, V. M. 
(BAHBE, BAKMU .. HASIA, or VAHVAKA i. 

J:;."&gt; or 306. Call. .1 by .I&gt;hn Knox "the 
^imnaris g,ddr.&lt;s." She is one of tin- 
ioui-iiM n .\r\ii.i LBI SAINTS. Supj. 
to 1.. tl;. ( lu-istian adaptation of the god 
dess of war. Hi-presented i I i with a 



miniature tower in her hand ; ( J ) with a 
tower behind her, a crown on her head, 
and holding a palm or a sword ; at her 
left side a chalice, with the sun in it as 
the sacred wafer, as if she were credited 
with giving the last sacraments to those 
who die suddenly in piety. In German 
and Flemish pictures she holds an 
ostrich s or a peacock s feather, in allu 
sion to the phoonix at Heliopolis, where 
she was born. The flesh of the phoenix 
was said by the ancients to be incor 
ruptible, so the bird became the symbol 
of apotheosis and of a happy immortality 
or long life. 

BARBARA, CATHERINE, EUPHEMIA, and 
MARGARET are the four great patrons of 
the Eastern Church. Barbara was patron 
of armourers, gunsmiths, artillery-men, 
brewers, tilers, thatchers, carpenters, 
masons, architects, sappers and miners, 
bell-ringers, hatters; of all dangerous 
trades involving liability to sudden 
death ; also of the goldsmiths at Rome ; 
of firearms and fortifications; against 
storms, thunderbolts, sudden death, and 
final impenitence ; of Hungary ; of the 
cities of Mantua, Ferrara, and Guastalla ; 
of Culemburg and Pedena in Istria. 

The legend of St. Barbara is that she 
was the daughter of Dioscurus, a rich 
nobleman, who, fearing she should be 
taken from him by marriage on account 
of her great beauty, built a tower in 
which to keep her. Here she lived and 
watched the stars until she became con 
vinced that they could not have been 
made by her father s gods. Having 
heard of a new and purer religion, she 
contrived to receive instruction and bap 
tism from a Christian priest disguised as 
a physician. Her father began to build 
her a bathing-place in the garden, but 
before it was finished, ho had to go on a 
long journey. During his absence, she 
went to look at the building, and finding 
that Dioscurus had ordered two windows 
to bo made in it, she persuaded the work 
men, notwithstanding their fear of dis 
obeying their master, to make three 
windows in honour of the Trinity. See 
ing a marble pillar beside the fountain, 
she made the sign of the cross on it, 
which remained there as if engravd 
upon the marble. After her martyrdom 



100 



B. BARBARA 



many came to pray at the spot, and, look 
ing on the cross, were healed of their 
infirmities. On the return of Dioscurus 
from his journey, he asked why there 
were three windows in the chamber. 
Barbara explained to him the mystic 
significance of the number three, and 
avowed herself a Christian. He was so 
enraged as to be on the point of stabbing 
her ; but bethinking him that he might 
thereby get himself into trouble, he 
denounced her to the governor of the 
place, who tried in vain to persuade her 
to abjure her religion, and then ordered 
her to be tortured. Her wounds were 
miraculously healed. Whereupon the 
governor said that as the gods showed 
her such compassion, she must not be 
ungrateful, but sacrifice to them. As 
she remained firm, notwithstanding re 
peated and varied tortures, she was con 
demned to be led through the city without 
any clothing. She prayed that she might 
be hidden from the eyes of unbelievers, 
and she was covered from head to foot 
with a brightness like a vesture. The 
governor then ordered her to be be 
headed. She was taken to a hill where 
malefactors were put to death. Her 
father, being at his own request her 
executioner, cut off her head. He re 
turned immediately to the city, boasting 
of the service he had done to the gods, 
and saying that he deserved to be 
honoured by the Emperor, and to have 
Ids name perpetuated. While he was 
speaking, a thunderbolt fell from heaven 
and destroyed him utterly, so that nothing 
remained of his body ; as Barbara s soul 
went up, his went down ; and while she 
was glorified among the martyrs, he was 
torn by demons. 

St. Barbara has long been honoured 
in the Latin, Greek, Kussian, and Syriac 
Churches, but her history is obscured by 
a variety of false Acts. Baronius follows 
those that say she was a disciple of 
Origen, and was martyred at Nicomedia 
in the time of Maximinus I., who raised 
the sixth general persecution after the 
murder of Alexander Severus, -M.~&gt;. 
Assemani, however, on the authority of 
other Aft*, says that she was martyred 
at Heliopolis, in Egypt, in the reign of 
Galerius, about the year ;&gt;&lt;&gt;&lt;;. The 



Greek Synaxary and the Emperor Basil s 
MeiuJn jy support this opinion. A very 
old monastery at Edessa was dedicated 
in her name. R.M., Dec. 4. Usuard 
and Molanus, Dec. 1&lt; &gt;. Ado of Treves. 
Yillegas. Metaphrastes. Butler. Mrs. 
Jameson. (, ahier, CaracMrutique*. 

Among the objects furnished for the 
processions of Corpus Christi by and in 
the borough of Dundee, were " Sane 
Barlill caatel, a crcdil an&lt;l litre lmrni# 
maid of claith, Abraamis luit, and tJire 
licdia of hayr." Scottish Review, No. 12, 
quoting Maxwell s IL ntnry of Old Dun- 
dee. 

B. Barbara (2), Sept. i. -f U72. 
Daughter of Albert the Pious, Duke of 
Bavaria, and Duchess Anna, daughter of 
Duke Erick of Brunswick. Duke Albert 
refused the crown of Bohemia, lest, be 
coming engrossed with its cares and 
pomps, he should lose the heavenly 
crown. In the same spirit his daughter 
despised all worldly state, and refused 
the crown of France. From the age of 
five she was brought up in the nunnery 
of St. Clara am Antjer, at Munich. After 
her parents death, and before she had 
taken any vows, ambassadors arrived 
from the young King of France, to ask 
her to be his wife. Her brother, Albert 
II., the Wise, told her of the offer, and 
asked for her decision. She said she 
would take three days to consider. At 
the end of that time she gave her answer, 
namely, that where her parents had 
placed her, there she would serve God 
lor the rest of her life. Albert agreed, 
and had the gate of the convent guarded, 
lest the French should attempt to carry 
her off. Barbara had in her possession 
three presents from her parents, which 
she valued very much : a plant of rose 
mary ; a cage containing a great number 
of birds of various kinds, which sang 
with her when she sang hymns and 
psalms; and a gold chain, which, with 
permission of her superiors, she always 
wore. She was just seventeen when all 
at once the bush died, the birds died, and 
the chain broke. She saw in this coinci 
dence a warning of approaching death, 
for which sho devoutly prepared, and 
gave up her innocent soul. She had 
twenty companions about her own age, 



B. HASH. A 



101 



all of whom used to join in singing 
prayers an 1 praises in the choir. Four- 
teen days after Barbara s death one of 
these maidens died ; in fourteen days 
more another died ; and so on, at regular 
intervals, until all the twenty were gone 
to sing with her in heaven. Stadler tind 
lleim, from Kader. 

B. Barbara i &gt; ), or BARBK, April is. 
Carmelite. ( tilled in religion MAHY OP 
THE INCARNATION. 156.5 10 IS. She was 
born in Paris, and was daughter of 
Nicholas Avrillot, seigneur de Champlu- 
tronx, maitre des comptes. She married 
Pierre Acarie, and had six children. He 
died 1 &gt;!. &gt;, and she became a lay sister 
in the Order of Reformed or Barefooted 
Carmelites at Amiens. Her daughter, 
Margaret Acarie, was a very devout 
Carmelite nun. (Sec THERESA (7).) In 
I- IMUCO Barbara was regarded as founder 
of the order, because it was through her 
exertions and representations that it was 
introduced into that country. The nuns 
at Amiens pressed her in vain to become 
tin ir abbess. She died a nun, at Pon- 
toise, in a community of Reformed 
Carmelites, of which the VEX. ANNA OP 
.ST. BARTHOLOMEW was the first prioress. 
Miracles were ascribed to Barbara. The 
queen-mother, Marie de Medici, erected 
a magnificent tomb in her honour, and 
headed the efforts made to procure her 
canonization. In 17i&gt;2 she was declared 
" Blessed " by Pius VI. In the Martyro- 
/.//// ,,/ // 0,-l-r of Barefooted Car- 
/ -v, she appears as " Blessed Mary of 
the Incarnation." She seems, however, 
to be generally remembered as Barbo 
Avrillot, probably because many nuns 
have taken the name of Mary of the 
Incarnation, amongst them two saintly 
French women, contemporary with Bar- 
lura; they were Amaurie Trochet and 
Murie (hiyard. Neither of them is 
honoured with worship or with a place 
in the calendars. A.E.M. Midland, 
Biographit I r nit* r+&gt; II, . Jinxjrafia Err!* M- 
iisticti. i;.irb;ir.i s Li/.- has been written 
l&gt;y Duval. M;mri(v, jmd others. 

St. Barbata i I i, \VH...I:KHITIS. 

St. Barbata 2 &gt;, P.M-I.A HARBATA. 

St. Barbe, HAKHARA. 

St. Barbea, .Ian. 21 , s,- : ,t. : (Bran, 
BKVEA, I- I\KA, THIBEA). 1st or 2nd 



century. M. at Edessa in Syria, with 
her brother St. Sarbelius or Sabbellu&lt;, 
a heathen priest in the time of Tnijun 
(! 7-l 17) or that of Hadrian (117-1 . 
They were converted by St. Barsimteus, 
Bishop of Edessa, and afterwards 
brought many Greeks to Christianity. 
Sarbelius was sawn asunder. Barbea, 
after having the. ilesh scourged off her 
bones, was despatched by a spear-wound 
in the back of her head. 11. M., Jan. 29. 
AA.SS; Jan. 29, Sept. 4. In the 
Afatoloyy of Basil, Sept. "&gt;, they are 
called Thuthael and Bebea ; in Slavo 
nian calendars, Sept. ."&gt;, Thiphael and 
Thibea, or Fifael and Fivea. 

St. Barbill, BARBARA (1). 

St. Baripsabe, Sept. in. In some 
Eastern calendars Baripsabe s name is 
added to those of SS. MENODORA, METRO- 
DIM: A, and XYMPHODORA. Greeco-Slavonic 
C lb itiliir. 

Baris, PARIS, or BARKA, March 20, 
M. with ANNA (7). 

St. Baromia, BEATA (1). 

St. Barran, Aug. J, an Irish V. 
Kelly s Calendar, from " Martyrology of 
Tallagh." 

B. Bartolommea (1), May I 1 . , V. 
of Siena, "f i;34S. She changed her 
name to ELIZABETH on entering the 
Third Order of Servites or Servants of 
Mary, founded by ST. JULIANA FALCONIERI. 
Bartolommea was a beloved disciple of 
the Blessed Francis of Sienna, of the 
same order. Her relics were kept in 
the church of the Servants of Mary at 
Siena, and worked miracles, her head 
being particularly beneficial to de 
moniacs. Papebroch, in AA.SS. Mas 
Latric, Tirsor. 

St. Baruaba. See FAITH, HOPE, and 
CHARITY. 

St. Basa (1), Sept. 21, M. at Tyre. 
Greek Symtxary, quoted by the AA.SS. 

SS. Basa (2), BAKHA (i), Aug. 21. 

St. Basia (l),or II XMI.IA, May 19, M. 
at (retulia, in Africa. AA.SS. 

St. Basia (2), UAKT-AKA. 

St. Basila, or HAHUSSA, Sept. 22, M. 
with SS. Arur.A (10) and XUSCA. They 
are worshipped at Ostia and in Via 
Salaria. Basila s body is kept in the 
church of St. Paul at Rome. Perhaps 
the same as ST. BASSILLA, M. o&lt;&gt;4, who 



102 



ST. BASILIA 



is honoured tbc same day. Papebroch, 
in AA.SS. 

St. Basilia, BASIA, etc. Seven 
martyrs who suffered at different times 
and places occur on different days in the 
calendars ; one of them was put to death 
at Alexandria with Leonides, the father 
of Origen, April 22, c. 204. AA.SS. 

St. Basilica (1), or BASILISSA (7), 
Nov. 1 8, M. Sister of OHICULA. 

St. Basilica (2), PLACIDIA (1). 

St. Basilica (;i), same as BASILISSA 
(8), Abbess of Horres. 

St. Basilissa (1), April 15. Mar 
tyred with ST. ANASTASIA at Rome, in 
the time of Nero. Eepresented burying 
the martyrs. They were women of rank, 
and disciples of the Apostles. Their 
tongues were cut out, and their feet cut 
off, and they were slain by the sword. 
EM. Callot. Husenbeth. 

St. Basilissa (2), BASILLA, or BAS- 
SILA, March 22, 26, M. under Decius. c. 
252. A rich woman, who gave money, 
for the Christians, to St. Callinica ; both 
were put to death when discovered. 
RJL, March 22. 

St. Basilissa (), Sept. ;-J, V. Mar 
tyred at Nicomedia, under Diocletian. 
When she was nine years old she was 
denounced as a Christian to Alexander 
the governor, and was by his order 
scourged, then her ankles were pierced 
and she was hung up with her head 
down, and tormented with the smoke of 
pitch and sulphur, next she was cast 
into the fire, and being taken out unhurt, 
two lions were let loose against her, 
but they would not touch her. When 
Alexander saw those miracles and the 
courage and determination of the child, 
he believed in Christ, and begged her to 
pray for him. He reformed his life, and 
died in peace. Set at liberty, Basilissa 
went out of the city, and being thirsty 
she prayed and a fountain of water 
sprang up from the earth ; she drank, 
and gave thanks ; then standing on a 
stone and praying, she gave up her soul 
to God, and the faithful are cured of 
all diseases at the fountain to this day. 

AA.SS. Mi-noloijy af ]&gt;sil. 

St. Basilissa (4), or BASSILA, April 
10, V. Martyr of Corinth, drowned. 
See CHARIESSA. 



St. Basilissa (:&gt;), March 12, M. 
Daughter of Cone or Clone, wife, either 
of Eustasius, a priest, or of Felicon. Put 
to death with them and several others in 
Asia. AA.SS. 

St. Basilissa ((&gt;), Jan. &lt;&gt;, M. 3rd 
century. Also called ST. CASTELLAXA, 
and in Mart. Salisbury ST. CASTELL. 
Wife of St. Julian the Hospitaller, and 
commemorated with him in the llnnum 
Martyr ology. 

Basilissa and Julian are represented 
(1) with lilies, roses, and crowns; (2) 
holding one lily between them ; (JJ) look 
ing together into the book of life, where 
their names are written. 

He is a patron of travellers, ferrymen, 
boatmen, and travelling minstrels who 
wander from door to door. 

The legend of SS. Julian and Basilissa 
is as follows : 

He was a noble count, fond of the 
pleasures of the world, of the chase in 
the green wood by day, and the revel in 
his castle by night. One day when he 
was hunting a deer, it turned round and 
spoke, foretelling that he should cause 
the death of his father and mother. The 
horrified count resolved never to return 
to his home where so terrible a fate 
awaited him, so he turned his horse 
and fled from the country. He travelled 
through many lands, and at last entered 
the service of a certain king, found favour 
with him, was promoted to great honour, 
and married a rich, noble, and beautiful 
widow named Basilissa, with whom he 
lived very happily for some years, and 
almost forgot the doom that had driven 
him into exile. Meantime his father and 
mother, having sought and sent messengers 
in vain in search of their only son, set- 
out themselves to look for him. When 
they had travelled a long time some 
times finding traces of him, and some 
times nearly losing hope they came 
one night to a castle and asked for a, 
night s shelter there. The lady of the 
house received the pilgrims hospitably 
for Christ s sake. When she had heard 
who they were and whom they sought, 
she was very glad, and said, " Blessed 
be God, who has brought you to your 
son s house! Julian is with the king 
to-night, but he will return to-morrow. 



ST. BASILISSA 



108 



I am IJasilissa, liis wife. Rest with us, 
and all that we have is yours." Then 
she waited upon them dutifully, gave 
them supper, and put them to sleep in 
her own bed. Xext morning, before 
daylight, she went to church, to give 
thanks for the arrival of her husband s 
nts. During her absence Julian 
returned, and went straightway to Basi- 
li.-sa s room. In the twilight he saw 
two persons asleep there. Without a 
moment s consideration, he drew his 
sword and killed them both. As he 
rushed madly from the house, he met 
Basilissa returning from church, radiant 
with happiness, and eager to tell him 
of the arrival of his father and mother. 
Then Julian knew what he had done, 
and understood that the fate from which 
he had fled had overtaken him. Ho 
told Basilissa he must leave her, for 
he could not stay in his home nor rest 
in peace until he had done penance 
and obtained pardon for this dreadful 
crime. liasilissa said she would go 
with him. They left their castle, and 
wandered on loot until they came to 
the hank of a river where persons were 
often drowned in attempting to cross 
the water. There Julian built a cell 
tor himself, and a hospital for the poor. 
II ferried travellers across the stream 
by day or night, in summer or winter, 
while Basilissa tended the poor and the 
sick in the hospital. One night in 
winter, when the river was swollen with 
rain and torrents from the mountains, 
and was raging past his door, he heard 
a voice calling him from the opposite 
bank. He went across, and found a 
young leper, who appeared to be dying 
"f mid and fatigue. He brought him 
over the ferry, placed him in his own 
bed, and watched by him with Basilissa 
until morning. At daybreak the lep-r 
arose ; his face shone like that of an 
angel, and saying to Julian, " Thy 
penance is accepted, and thy rest is 
near," he vanished out of their sight. 
Shortly afterwards they both died. 

Then; an- thirty-six Saints Julian in 
the litinimi -1 fiti-fifi /;/ if; seven of tin in 
ure commemorated in.lunuury. Thereare 
also many Saints I .asilissa, and some who 
are called indifferently BASIUI.IA, BA- 



. BASSILLA, BASSA, etc. ; hence there 
is some confusion, and it is not always 
easy to disentangle them. St. Julian 
and his wife are believed to have lived 
at Antinoe, in Egypt. They spent their 
lives and substance in charity, and made 
their house a hospital, serving Jesus 
Christ in His poor and sick, someti 
entertaining as many as a thousand. 
Julian attended to the men in one part 
of the house, while Basilissa took care 
of the women in another. On account of 
the trials she endured for the love of 
God, and because she sustained the 
courage of so many who were persecuted 
under Diocletian, Basilissa has a place 
among the martyrs, although she died a 
natural death. Julian survived her about 
a year, and was put to death in the same 
persecution. On his way to martyrdom, 
as ho passed a school, the boys came out 
into the street to see the martyr go by. 
Celsus, the son of the governor, was one 
of them. Ho called out that he saw the 
angels accompanying Julian, and giving 
him a crown ; then, throwing away his 
books and exclaiming, " I believe in the 
God of the Christians," he fell at the 
feet of Julian. The governor ordered 
the boy to be kept all night in a horrible 
dungeon with Julian. During the night 
Antony, a priest who had the care of 
seven little orphan boys, summoned by 
an angel, went with his boys to the 
prison, and baptized Celsus and some of 
the guards, who were converted. The 
governor, supposing his little son must 
have had quite enough of Christianity 
in one night in prison, sent him now to 
his mother. Ho told her all that had 
happened, and she also believed, and was 
baptized by Antony. They were all put 
to death, the seven boys by fire. A. !.&gt; &gt; . 
Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and L &lt;/&gt; n&lt;lii/ 
Art, ii. Mnrtij,-n,n A&gt;-t&lt;t. Butler. Mar 
tin. Baillet says they are commemorated 
on several different days in different 
places, which partly accounts for tho 
great number of I J \MI.I.\S and BASI 
LICAS. 

St. Basilissa &lt; 7 ), or BASILICA (2), 
M. 0, 400 or LQ8. Sister of ST. Oui- 
&lt; ri. \. 

St. Basilissa (8), or BASH .1, 
Dec. .\May 2". t "" ( ) - S - 1 



104 



ST. BASILLA 



and successor of ST. ANASTASI^, Abbess of 
Horres,nearTreves. Bucelinus, 3/&lt; H. Ben, 

St. Basilla (M, May L n, Sept. 22 
( BASILIA, BASILISSA, BASSILLA, etc.), V. 
M. c. 804. Of royal lineage, and be 
trothed to a man of equal rank, to whom 
the Golden Legend gives the name of 
Pompey. As he was a heathen, she 
would not be married to him. He ap 
pealed to the Emperor Gallienus, who 
said she must be married forthwith or 
she should be pierced with a sword. 
She said she already had the King of 
kings for her husband, and could not 
have another. She was put to death, and 
was buried in the ancient Via Salaria, 
in a cemetery that belonged to her, and 
which has sometimes been called by her 
name, and sometimes by the names of 
other martyrs buried there. Her body 
was removed to the church of ST. PRAS- 
SEDE, in the 9th century. She is com 
memorated in the ancient Roman Calendar, 
compiled in the middle of the 4th cen 
tury, and that of St. Jerome shows that 
she was worshipped at her own cemetery 
on Sept. 22. She is also honoured on 
Sept. 1 1 , with ST. EUGENIA and SS. Protus 
and Hyacinthus. R.M., May 20. Pape- 
broch, in AA.SS., Sept. 22. Baillet, Vies. 
Le f/ende Dore e. Canisius. 

St. Basilla (2), or BASILISSA, May 
17, M. at Alexandria with SS. Adrion 
and Victor. R.M. 

St. Basilla (3), Aug. 29 (BASILA, 
BASILISSA), M. at Smyrna, or Syrmium, 
or Sirmich. EM. AA.SS. 

St. Basilla (4), Dec. 24 or 25. Fer- 
rarius calls her mother of ST. EUGENIA, 
but the legend gives Claudia as the name 
of Eugenia s mother. 

St. Basiola, or BASJELA, June K-J, 
M. Wife of St. George, tortured and 
martyred with many others in Abyssinia, 
encouraging her husband and the rest 
to the last. AA.SS. 

St. Basjela, BASIOLA. 

Bassa, Basia, BASILA, BASILLA, 
BASILIA, BASILICA, BASILCA, BASSILA, 
BASSILICA, BASSILIA, BASSILLA, BASILISSA, 
BASSILISSA, are sometimes written one 
for the other. Many saints and martyrs 
bore these names. Three Bassas appear 
in the R.M., March 0, Aug. 1&lt;&gt;, and 
Aug. 21. 



Bassa, or Bassila, or Bassilla was a 
Latin name derived from Bassus. Basilia 
Mid Basilissa are feminine forms of the 
Greek name Basil, a king, and were very 
popular in the Koman empire at the time 
when the great persecutions occurred. 
Basilica and Basilca appear to be variants 
of Basilia or Basil issa ; the and the / 
seem to have been doubled or loft single 
in the calendars, at the discretion of the 
copyist. Basa may have been a separate 
name, but the SS. BASA, Sept. 21 and 
Aug. 21, are identified with the SS. 
BASSA of those dates. Basta is perhaps 
a clerical error for Bassa. 

St. Bassa (l), or BASA, Aug. 21, 
M. at Edessa, in Syria, in the tenth 
persecution, end of ttrd or beginning of 
4th century, under Maximian. 

The Roman Martyrology says that she 
encouraged her three sons in their Chris 
tian profession and martyrdom, and, 
having sent them before her to receive 
the palm, she was beheaded and followed 
them joyfully. 

The Menoloyy of Baxil, and the account 
given by Pinius the Bollandist, say 
further that she was the wife of a heathen 
priest named Valerius, who accused her 
and her sons before the prefect as Chris 
tians. The sons, whose names were 
Theognes or Theogonius, Agapius, and 
Fidelis or Pistis, one by one underwent 
the most horrible tortures, one being 
flayed, another torn to pieces, while their 
mother stood by and encouraged them 
to endure to the end. Having seen them 
all die triumphantly rather than give up 
their religion, Bassa endured indescrib 
able torments, but was miraculously pre 
served from injury. At last the baffled 
prefect had her thrown into the sea, 
whereupon angels took her in a boat to 
the island of Halo, in the Hellespont. 
Her wonderful escapes were related to 
Philip, an officer of the government in 
Greece, with the representation that a 
woman who had practised so many sor 
ceries should not be suffered to live. So 
he sent and had her beheaded. Her 
sous are honoured with her. Pinius says 
their martyrdom may have taken place 
at Larissa, instead of Edessa. R.M. 
AA.SS. Men. Uasil. 

St. Bassa (2;, March &lt;&gt;, M. Wife of 



ST. HATI!IU&gt;K 



105 



St. Cluiulian. They were tortured and 
imprisoned with SS. \ ictor and A ic- 
turiuus, and all died in prison in the 
course of three years, either at Apamea 
n Nicomedia, cities of Bithynia. R.M. 
SS. 

St. Bassa (:J), Aug. K&gt;, with SS. 
PAI I.A ami Ac ATHONICA, VV. MM. at 
Carthage. KM. AA.SS. 

St. Bassa ( 4), BASA (1). 

SS. Bassa &lt; 5-9 &gt;. Besides the above, 
five appear as martyrs. 

St. Bassenes. Sec FAITH, HOPE, and 

&lt; ll \l;l IV. 

St. Bassila, or BASILISSA, or BAS- 
SILLA, Fob. 17, M. at Home, with many 
others. AA.SS. 

St. Bassilia, Feb. 2S, M. with many 
others. AA.SS. 

St. Basta, Aug. in, V. M. at Car 
thage. Perhaps the same as BASSA, com 
memorated on this day with PAULA and 
AGATHOMCA. 

St. Bathilde ( 1 ), Jan. 20, 3o. 
f ". i BADECHILD, BALDECHILD, BALD- 
HII.I), B A i. TILDA, BAUDOUK, BAUDURIA, 
HIKULT, BAUTOUR, BETILDA, VAR- 
I .rm.is. i Queen of France. Patron and 
founder of the abbeys of Chelles and 
Corbie. 

Represented as queen and nun, with a 
ladder, in allusion to a vision, or as a pun 
upon the word Chelles (echette, a ladder ). 

Wife of Clovis II. (G. J8-05(j), and 
mother of Clothaire III., Childeric II., 
and Thierry III. 

&lt; &gt;t ( lovis II. the Chronicle of St. Denis 
says, " Jji crxtui roy Loys puet /&gt; plux 
ilin- &lt;!&gt; inn! &lt;ine de mal quc de bien" He 
was tolerably devout, but had so many 
vices that they eclipsed his virtues: ho 
waH drunken, gluttonous, and dissolute. 
His wife was &lt;/ H-jmnje Saisoigne, Bau- 
tlii iit limit non, sainte dame ct reliyicuse 
&gt;t ji/niiH &lt;l, \,\ y, mar nostre Sell/Hour; et 
/it n&lt;/, tin an ft de grant biaute, *i fu 
cellc qn I m &lt;lif * i!,,te Jtautlricutde Chelle." 
Sho was a slave in the house of Erkon- 
w:ild or Archibald, mayor of the palace, 
who married her to Clovis as soon as he 
was grown up. According to Sismondi, 
she had refused to become the mistress 
"1 Erkonwald. Sim is claimed by the 
-lish hagiographers as an Anglo- 
11 lady of rank, carried oft by pirates, 



and sold in France to Krkonwald s first 
\\iic, on whose death Krkonwald pro- 
post -d to marry Bathilde, but she fled, 
and only returned to his service when ho 
hud married again. Others say she was 
daughter of a king in Germany, and was 
carried captive in war by Clovis. As a 
fact, her origin is unknown. Mezeray 
observes on this point that when one has 
risen to high rank, " on n a qu a chfnsir lit 
race dont on veut etre dencendu." 

Slaves were publicly sold in the market 
at St. Denis near the abbey. The traffic 
was protected by the abbot. When Ba 
thilde became queen she enacted laws to 
mitigate the condition of slaves, and to 
prevent Christians being sold as such. 

One day Clovis II. went to the abbey 
of St. Denis to see the holy relics. Not 
content with looking at them, he wished 
to have one to wear, and therefore broko 
off a bone of the arm of St. Denis. The 
same hour the king was struck with mad 
ness. To appease the offended saint, he 
gave him several towns, and had the bone 
covered with pure gold and gems, and 
put back. He recovered his memory, 
and lived two years more, but was never 
the same man again. 

After his death, in bV&gt;&gt;, Bathilde was 
Regent for some years. She was uni 
versally respected, but she seems to have 
confined her attention to matters ecclesi 
astical and religious, leaving secular 
affairs mainly in the hands of the mayors 
of the palace. She succeeded, however, 
in relieving the poor people from some 
of their grievances, especially a capitation 
tax, which caused great misery. She is 
a remarkable instance of a woman raised 
from the lowest to the highest station, 
acting invariably with conscientious dis 
cretion, sympathizing with those whose 
sufferings she had once known, generous 
and kind to all, the friend of the best and 
greatest men of her time. 

liathildc s great devotion to St. Eloy, 
goldsmith, prime minister, and bishop, 
was probably inspired by his kindness 
to Saxon slaves, as well as by his other 
saintly qualities. In tJ.V.i she heard he 
was dying. She hastened to Noyon, 
with the little kings, the court, and a 
crowd of nobles, who had a great affection 
for the venerable prelate. They hoped 



100 



ST. BATHILDE 



to receive his blessing, but to their great 
grief he was already dead when they 
arrived. The queen, in the depth of her 
sorrow, had only the consolation of un 
covering and reverently kissing the dead 
face. She wished to bury him in her 
monastery of Choi les. The nobles wanted 
to have him laid in their capital. The 
clergy and people of Noyon considered 
him their own saint, and refused to give 
up the sacred remains. The departed 
bishop declared for his own flock, for 
when the coffin was to be taken away, it 
was found impossible to move it. As he 
was to be buried in the monastery of St. 
Loup (afterwards called St. Eloi), Ba- 
thildo insisted on accompanying the 
funeral cnrte.ye on foot, and would not 
mount the horse provided for her. 

Her three sons, like the rest of the 
faineant kings, were puppets in the hands 
of the mayors of the palace, who divided 
the three kingdoms among their nominal 
masters, dethroning or reinstating them 
at will, and quarrelling and fighting for 
their own interests all the time. The 
most distinct account I have met with of 
these faineant reigns is in Mezeray s 
History of France. 

To quote again the Chronicle of St. 
Denis 

"Des lors commenga li roianmc de 
France a abeisser et a decheoir et li Roi 
a fourlignier du sens et de la puissance 
de leur anccssours. Si estoit le roiaumes 
gouvernez par Chambellenz et par Con- 
nestables qui estoient apele Maistre du 
palais ne li lloi n avoient tant seulement 
quo le non, ne de riens ne servoient fors 
de boire et de mengier. En un chastel 
ou en un manon demouroient toute 1 anee 
jusques aus Kal de May. Lors issoient 
hors en un chaarz pour saluer le pueple, 
et pour estre salue d eulz, dons et presens 
prenoient, et aucuns en rendoient, puiz 
retournoient a Fostel et estoient einssi 
jusqu aus autres Kal de May." 

It was during Bathilde s regency that 
Corbie, a great estate in Picardy, reverted 
to the Crown. It had been given to 
Gontland, a Frank, but feudal grants 
were not yet hereditary, and on his death 
it became the property of the three little 
imbecile kings. For their souls, the soul 
of their mad father, her own soul, and 



the good of the people, Bathilde built at 
Corbie the famous monastery of St. Peter, 
for monks under the rule of St. Colum- 
banus. 

During her husband s life she had 
magnificently refounded the abbey of 
St. George at Chellcs on the Marne, 
about ten miles from Paris. It was first 
founded by ST. CLOTILDA ( 1 ). After 
some years of regency, Bathilde retired 
from the cares of government, and placed 
herself under ST. BERTILLA, whom she 
had appointed Abbess of Chelles. Sho 
declined any distinction as queen or 
foundress, but swept the cloisters and 
worked in the kitchen like the humblest 
nun. On her death-be;! she was cheered 
with a vision of a luminous ladder, which 
angels were calling her to ascend. 

Her name is in the .R.Jf., Jan. 2&lt;&gt; ; in 
the French Mart., Jan. MO. Sismondi, 
Histoirc dcs Francai*. Le Glay, La Gaulv 
Belyique. Chronicle of St. Denix. Meze- 
ray, Life of St. Bertlta, and other saints 
of the period, given by Bouquet, Butler, 
Baillet, and the other collectors of Lives 
of Saint*. 

St. Bathilde ( 2), or RADEGUXD (2 ), of 
Chelles. -f &lt;.-. &lt;&gt;?!&gt;. 

SS. Bathusa and Verca, MM. 
c. :-J70, in Gothia, now Roumania. Mas 
Latrie, Tre sor. 

St. Battona. A name erroneously 
given to ST. DOMINICA of Tropea. 

St. Baudegonde, BALDEGUND. 

St. Baudour, BATHILDE (1). 

St. Bauduria, BATHILDE (1). 

St. Baula, Sept. 27. Coptic Calendar. 
AA.SS. 

St. Bausame, BALSAMIA. AA.SS. 

St. Bauterina, Jan. 1 s, M. at Avitina. 
AA.88. 

St. Bauthieult, BATHILDE (1). 

St. Bautour, BATHILDE (1). 

St. Bauzanne, BALSAMIA. 

St. Baya, VEY. 

St. Bazalota, Juno &lt;l. 4th century. 
Nun in Abyssinia. Sister of St. Michael, 
a venerable old priest. Commemorated 
with him and ST. EUPHEMIA in the Abys 
sinian Hagiology. Papebroch, in AA.SS. 

St. Bazilia. .SV&lt;- SILA. 

St. Beata &lt; 1 ), March 8 (BAKOMIA, 
BEUA, BKHKMA, BKKOMA, BIRONA, or 
BOKKMA , M. in Africa with St. Cyril, 



B. BEATRICE D ESTE 



107 



bishop, the holy women HKKKMA and 
FKLKMTAS, and other martyrs. P.M. 
AA.SS. 

St. Beata &lt; -), BKNKDK TA. 

St. Beatrice (1), Jan. 2 . , July L". 

(1JKATIMX, VlATBIX i, V. M. 303. 

Kepresented holding a rope in her left 
hand and a candle in her right. (Husen- 
beth, from MS. "Hours.") 

A Roman maiden. Sister of the 
martyrs Simplicius and Fauslinus, whom 
she buried in the Via Portuensi. She 
was strangled by the servants in her 
own house, by order of Lucretius, to 
whom she was betrothed, and who had 
denounced her as a Christian, that he 
might seize on her wealth. She was 
buried by ST. LUCINA, with whom she 
had lived for seven months. While 
Lucretius was feasting with his friends 
and speaking in an insulting manner of 
the Christian martyrs, ho heard a voice 
say, " Hear, O Lucretius, thou hast 
killed and taken possession, therefore 
th u art :iveii into the hands of the 
enemy." He turned pale and trembled, 
the devil entered into him and vexed 
him for three hours, and then he died. 
All the guests were so terrified that they 
became ( hi istians, and told every one 
how St. Beatrice had been avenged. 
The ].!&gt;/&lt; it&gt;l&lt;ir&lt;&lt;&gt; says the mysterious 
voice was that of an infant whom a 
woman was nursing as she stood among 
the crowd. The church of Bethersdeu, 
in Kent, is the only one in England 
dedicated in honour of St. Beatrice. P.M., 
July 2 . . Ma lit/mm Art,/. Villegas. 

St. Beatrice (2), or BOZENA, Nov. 
1 .:. 1 2th or early 1 :&gt;th century. Bozena 
was probably her Bohemian name, that 
of Beatrice she most likely adopted on 
taking the veil. Her father, Sezima, 
belonged to one of the most noble and 
powerful families of Bohemia, the Counts 
of (Juttcnstein and the ( Wilts of Wrtby. 
Her mother was I Jobroslava, of the family 
of the Cernine. Her brother Hrosnata 
is one of the famous saints and patrons 
of Bohemia; he built, in 11SMI, a 
monastery of the Promionstrateusian 
Order. These saints are supposed to 
have 1,, .n born at Tepl. Beatrice had a 
sister WOYSI.AVA, a holy widow, and two 
unmarried sisters, Bohuslawa and Judith, 



who became nuns with her in the 
monastery of Chotiessow. The dates of 
her birth and death are not known. 
Hrosnata died at an advanced age in 
1217. The Bollandists promise a J 
of Beatrice on her day. The above is 
from their Lift- of St. HroBnatn, July 4, 
and H. J. Karlik s Hroznata und die 
Pn iiuoiixti iift //x- / Al f -I Tf pl. 

B. Beatrice (:i; d Este, May in, V. 
l_ i Mi- 1245. Three women of this name 
and family are honoured for their 
sanctity; they all lived in the i::th 
century. This one was daughter of Azo, 
first Marquis of Este, Lord of Ancona, 
Ferrara, Verona, etc. Her mother was 
the Princess Leonora, daughter of 
Thomas III., of Savoy. Beatrice was 
born in the Castle of Este. At the ago 
of fourteen she became a nun in the- 
convent of St. Margaret, at Solarola, near 
Este. When she had been there a year 
and a half, finding the place liable to be 
disturbed by soldiers, she removed, with 
the approbation of the Bishop of Padua, 
to the monastery of St. John the Baptist 
at Gemmola, or Demola, in his diocese. 
It had been deserted by monks. She 
restored it for herself and her com 
panions, with the help of her brother 
Azo. B. JULIANA OF Cm.i.Ai/ro was one 
of ten nuns who settled with her at 
Gemmola. Some money was found on 
the altar, and although there was nono 
but that in the house, Beatrice gave it 
away in alms, lest it should bo a begin 
ning of avarice in the community. Six 
years after her death her body and the 
epitaph were translated to the church of 
St. Sophia at Padua. For many years 
afterwards it was observed that when 
ever anything important was about to- 
happen in the family of Este, she turned 
round in her place, and a great noise 
was heard in the chapel. Bucelinus, 
Men. /&gt;//., May In, and Lifr of B. 
Juli iiKi &lt;&gt;f Cnllalto, Sept. 1. Bucolinus. 
gives 122&lt; as her date, but I think it is 
the date of her taking the veil. Her 
name does not appear in the Roman. 
Miii-tyralo jii, but her nieeo ami namesake 
i- &lt;alll "Blessed Beatrice Estcw 
S&gt; /////./," implying that the aunt is tho 
first. Muratori, /I ////&gt;////// /&gt;/. &lt; . Pape- 
i. in I I s v 



108 



B. BEATRICE D ESTE 



B. Beatrice (4) d Este, Jan. 18, 
Feb. 28. f 12&lt;&gt;2 or 127&lt;. Niece of 
BEATRICE (3). Daughter of Azo, second 
Marquis of Ferrara, Mantua, Verona, 
and Ancona. Her mother was Joanna, 
sister of Robert, King of Apulia. He 
must have been one of the Norman dukes 
of Apulia, probably the last before the 
absorption of the dukedom into the 
kingdom of Naples in 1265. Beatrice 
walked from her childhood in the steps 
of her blessed aunt of the same name. 
She had many suitors, among whom her 
father chose Galeazzo Manfredi, Lord of 
Vicenza and Verardino. Preparations 
were made for a grand and gay wedding. 
Beatrice was sent off with a train of 
noble ladies and gentlemen to meet her 
bridegroom. When they arrived at 
Milan, a messenger met them with the 
sad news that Galeazzo had just died of 
wounds received in battle. The wedding 
party sadly took their way back to 
Ferrara, but the bride would not re-enter 
the city or return to the life she had left. 
She stopped at St. Lazarus, near Ferrara. 
She changed her gay attire for the dress 
of the poor people, and said she would 
now choose a husband of whom no 
earthly accident could deprive her. 
Seven noble maidens, who had been the 
companions of her brilliant wedding 
journey, and four of her serving-women, 
volunteered to remain with her. They 
were joined by so many others that the 
place was too small, and Azo built and 
endowed a new Benedictine monastery 
for her, with the approbation of the Pope. 
It was at first dedicated in the name of 
St. Stephen de Rupta, but was afterwards 
called St. Anthony s. Beatrice took the 
veil in 1254, and lived there fifteen years 
with great austerity, piety, and charity. 
She died Jan. 18, 1270, and was imme 
diately honoured as a saint. Her 
worship was approved by Clement XIV. 
(17IJK-1775). Pius VI. (1775-1800) 
conceded a festival, Jan. 1 1), with office 
und Mass. Her name is in the Bene- 
(lictuif Appendix to the Roman Nartyro- 
loyy as "The second Blessed Beatrice 
of Este, Virgin," Jan. 18 and Feb. 28. 
AA.SS. Boll., Jan., vol. ii., Add&lt; n&lt;l, 
and Jan. 18. Officia Propria Sanctorum 
Etrurise, etc., prayers and lessons for 



Jan. 1!&gt;. Bucelinus, Men. Ben.., Jan. 

18. 

B. Beatrice (5) d Este, July ll. 
13th century. Queen of Hungary. The 
third B. Beatrice of Este was daughter 
of Aldobrandino, Marquis of Este, who 
died when she was a child, and she w;is 
adopted by his brother, Azo VII. She 
was about sixteen when, in 1234, she 
became the third wife of her cousin 
Andrew II., King of Hungary, an old 
man and the father of ST. ELIZABETH of 
Thuringia. His family were much dis 
pleased, as they did not wish him to have 
a son by his young wife. Before long 
he died. His posthumous son Stephen 
was brought up at Este, and married 
successively two Italian ladies, by one 
of whom he had a son, Andrew III., 
King of Hungary, father of another ST. 
ELIZABETH (17). Beatrice became a nun 
at Gemmola. The Bollandists say there 
is no authority for the worship of this 
one. She is called " Blessed " by Wion 
and a few other writers. AA.SS. 
Muratori, Antichita Estensi, I. 41!, ft 
seq. ; Mailath, Hist, of Hunyary, i. 171. 

B. Beatrice (6), March 12, 13. Pra- 
monstratensian nun at Porto, Angelica, 
on the Moselle, in the diocese of Treves. 
The Bollandists could not discover her 
history. They found she was mentioned 
by Galenius and in the records of the 
order. Saussaye, Murtyrologiuw Gfdli- 
canum, March 12. Natolibus. Lo 
Paige, Billiothcca Prsemonstratensii Or- 
dinis, and Annotations to Baronius. 

B. Beatrice (7), Feb. 28, July 2&lt;&gt;. 
f 1203 or 12)8. First Prioress of the 
Cistercian monastery of Nazareth, near 
Lira, in Brabant. She was horn at 
Tillemont, on the Geta, in Brabant. 
Her parents, Bartholomew and Gertrude, 
were rich and devout. At the age of 
seven she joined the Beguines for a 
year. Her father afterwards placed her 
in the monastery of Vallis Florida. Shu 
kept her spirit pure by torturing her 
body : she tied ropes tightly round her, 
wore a girdle of thorns, and otherwise 
shone in self-torture. She was sorely 
tried by the fear of death, which she 
strove in vain to overcome. Christ 
pierced her heart with a fiery dart, and 
told her that He loved her especially 



B. BEATRICE DE SILV \ 



KM) 



among all hnman creatures. Long after 
lu T death, in a time of disturbance, the 
nuns fled from Nazareth to Lira. 
11 -atriet: s lnulv was left walled up at 
N:i /a re th, but was carried by angels to 
Lira, in 1 I*;, for safety, as was proved 
by the fact that several persons heard 
music and saw a light in the middle of 
tin night. Gertrude do Greve was 
abbess at the time. AA.SS. Boll., 
lulv _" , Prteter. Bucelinus, Jl/r/i. ////., 
Feb. 2S. Henriquez, Lilia, July 29. 
Hii _ f &lt;&gt; M Mrird, Mart. Ben., gives her day 
as July 27, and places her death in l J &gt;^. 
Her /.// is said to be in Mirasus s Chron. 
///. 

B. Beatrice (s), HAVYDIS. 

B. Beatrice (9) d Ornacieux, 
Feb. 1.5. "\ i;Ji&gt;5. Carthusian nun at 
I armenie, in the diocese of Grenoble. 
It -presented hammering a nail into her 
left hand, in order t ) share the sufferings 
&gt;t Christ. Her immemorial worship 
was confirmed by Pius IX. in 1809. 
Aaudecta Juris Pontificii, series xi. 204. 
(Sillier, CaracMrisliques. 

B. Beatrice (!&lt;&gt;) Nov - &lt;&gt; Nun in 
tin.: Cistercian monastery of the Blessed 
Viririn Mary of Olivet, near Mari- 
nnmtiura, in Hainault. She was ex 
tremely beautiful. Her beauty was a 
snare- to herself and to an unworthy 
\&gt;ri- -*t who ministered at the house. 
Sin- w.is keeper of the oratory, and had 
a considerable devotion to the B. V. 
Mary. When she determined to elope 
with the priest, she laid the keys on 
tin: altar, saying, "I have served you 
faithfully. Here I give up my charge 
and give you back your keys. I am 
going where my inclinations call me." 
.She went oil with the priest, who soon 
deserted her. She had nothing to live 
on, and was ashamed to return to her 
eonvent, so she led a sinful life for 
fifteen years. At last, hankering after 
tin b.-tter life she had loft, she wont to 
() of her old home and asked the 
portcivss if sho remembered Sister 
, th keeper of the oratory. 
was the reply, "I knew her and 
know ln-r very well ; she is a holy 
woman IH-IYJ t&gt; this day." Beatrice did 
not undiTstand, and was going away, 
but th: IJ. V. Mary, to whom she had 



commended herself and given up tho 
keys, said to her, "I have done your 
work and saved your character all these 
years. Now come back and do pen 
ance." Sho did so, and lived several 
years in holy penitence and died in 
tho odour of sanctity. Henriquez, Li I in 
Cistercii. Bucelinus, Men. Ben., Nov. 
o. The Bollandists promise her Life 
when their calendar comes down to her 
day. 

B. Beatrice ( 1 1 ) Casata, March 20. 
"( 141" i. The Casati were an old family 
of Milan. Beatrice married Franchino, 
Count of Rusca, or Rasconia. In her 
widowhood she was distinguished for 
piety and unworldliness. She died. 
March 20, 1490. Her bones were 
honourably translated from an old to a 
new convent at Milan, in 1351. Hen- 
schouius could not ascertain whether this 
was on the ground of her sanctity or 
only of her rank. Sho was said to have 
wrought several miracles both before 
and after her death. Sho is com 
memorated in the Franciscan Martyroloyy. 
AA.SS. Boll., July 17, Prseter. Gcbet- 
Bucli, O.S.F., Dec. 19. Mentioned in 
the Life of B. Pnulnntia, May 0, AA.SS. 
Boll. 

B. Beatrice (12) de Silva, Sept. 1, 
Oct. S. { 1490. In Portuguese she is 
called BHITKS. Founder of tho Franciscan 
Order of tho Conception of our Lady* 
Daughter of Gomez do Silva, governor of 
Carnpo Mayor and Onguela, and of Isabel 
Menez. Sister of James, first Count of 
Portalegre, and of B. Amadeo, founder of 
the Amadeists. She was related to tho 
royal family of Portugal. When Isabel, 
daughter of Edward, King of Portugal 
(14:j:;-l-l:5S), married John II., King of 
Castile (1400-1454), Beatrice accom 
panied her to that kingdom. This was 
about 1442. Her beauty procured her 
a great deal of attention at tho Spanish 
court. Numerous duels wore fought on 
account of her. She had many offers 
of marriage, and the king admired her 
too much. Tho queen, being jealous, 
imprisoned her in her own room, and 
left her three days without food. While 
praying for life and iunoceucy, sho 
received a promise of protection from, 
the 1). V. MAKV, whom she saw in ft 



110 



B. BEATRICE 



blue cloak and white gown, as she is 
represented in the pictures of the 
Immaculate Conception. As soon as 
she was released, she fled to Toledo. 
On the way thither she was surprised to 
hear herself addressed in her native 
language by two Franciscan monks. At 
first she supposed the queen had sent 
them to bring her back, but she found 
that one of them was St. Anthony of 
Padua. When they had promised that 
she should be the spiritual mother of 
many holy women, they disappeared. 
She shilt herself up in a Dominican con 
vent at Toledo for forty years, seeing no 
one but Queen Isabel the Catholic, wife 
of Ferdinand of Aragon, and daughter 
of the king and queen from whom 
Beatrice had fled in her youth. She 
designed a new order in honour of the 
Conception. The queen used her in 
fluence to have it approved by the Pope, 
and gave her, in 1484, the palace of 
Galliana for a convent. It took its 
name from the chapel of St. Faith, that 
belonged to the palace. Although the 
rule was Franciscan, the first sisters 
were twelve of her fellow-nuns in the 
Dominican house where she had lived 
so long. The institute was approved by 
Innocent VIII. in 1 489. Cardinal Xime- 
nes, O.S.F., had this order united to the 
Clares, whose rule they adopted with 
certain mitigations. In 1511 Pope 
Julius II. gave the Conceptionists a par 
ticular rule, leaving them still incor 
porated with the Clares. Beatrice died 
Sept. 1, 149o, ten days before the time 
appointed for the solemn inauguration 
of her order. She is much honoured in 
Spain, and her Life has been written by 
Bivar and others. One of the peculiar 
austerities of this branch of the Order of 
St. Francis was that after their profession, 
the nuns were never again allowed to 
speak to any secular person, even their 
nearest relations. There was a house 
of the order at Rome in 1525, and one 
at Milan in 1,5!&gt;9. Bucelinus, Men. Ben., 
Oct. 8, claims her as a Benedictine. 
Henriquez places her among the Cister 
cians, but she was for more than half 
&lt;her life a Dominican nun, and her own 
order was Franciscan. 

Heylot, Ilistoi redes Ordres Monastiyues, 



vii. 40. Analecta Juris Pontificii, iii. 
.549. Butler, " St. Francis," note. 

B. Beatrice (13), Nov. 26. t i: (&gt;: - 
One of the first nuns of the Dominican 
convent of ST. CATHKKIM: &lt;&gt;r SIKNA, at 
Ferrara. When the cemetery was being 
made, she got into a grave and lay down 
straight and still as if she were dead. 
The other nuns asked her why she did so. 
She said because she was destined to be 
the first person buried in the new ceme- 
try, which proved to be true. Pio says 
she took the habit at an early age, led an 
angelic life, and was very young when 
she died. Eazzi, Predicatpri. Pio, 
Hist. Doin. Manoel de Lima, A&lt;jiL 
Dom. 

B. Beatrice (14 ) of St. Francis, 
Nov. 15, Sept. 2. 16th century. During 
the life of her husband she belonged to 
the Third Order of Minorites. She re 
fused a good offer of a second marriage. 
She built the Franciscan convent of Villa 
Longa, near Lisbon, giving it the name 
of Our Lady of the Powers. She was 
consecrated a nun by Mark of Lisbon, 
Bishop of Porto. She was still living in 
1566. The Bollandists promise her Life, 
Nov. 15. She is mentioned in the Fran 
ciscan Prayer-book, Sept. 2. 

Beatrice (M5 ) of the Incarnation, 
May 5. ) 157. &gt; or 1574. Carmelite 
nun under ST. THEHESA. Her name was 
BEATKIZ OXES, spelt and called in French 
OGNEZ. She was of noble birth, a native 
of Arroyo, near Santa Gadea, and made 
her profession in the monastery of Our 
Lady of Mount Carmel at Valladolid, 
on Sept. 17, 157n. The prioress and all 
the nuns declared that during the three 
years she lived with them they never 
saw in her anything with which fault 
could be found. Great outward and 
inward tranquillity arose from her being 
constantly in prayer and thanksgiving. 
Once when two men were condemned to 
be burnt for atrocious crimes, she was 
filled with compassion for their souls, 
and prayed that she might suffer their 
bodily penalty, and that their souls 
might bo saved. The same night she 
was seized with agonizing pain, that 
continued as long as she lived. " The 
criminals made a good death, which 
seems to prove," says Theresa, " that 



ST. BEGGA 



111 



God had heard her prayer." Beatrice 
showed great sweetness, patience, and 
rfect obedience during her illness. 
It is very common," says St. Theresa, 
for souls given to prayer to wish for 
sufferings when they have none, but it is 
not common for those who have them to 
bear them and be glad." About a 
quarter of an hour before Beatrice died 
her face shone and was so full of joy 
that all present thought they were in 
beaven. A very sweet scent nrose from 
her body as it was laid in the tomb. 
The candles that were used during the 
funeral rites and burial suffered not the 
least diminution of wax. Theresa, 
Foundations, xii. 

B. Beatrice &lt; 16) of Cantona. iGth 
century. Abbess of the nuns of the 
Order of Christian Doctrine, founded 
-. by St. Charles Borromeo. Gueiie- 
bault, Diet, d lam. 

St. Beatte, BEXEDICTA (4) of Sons. 
St. Bebea, BAKBEA. 
St. Bee of Kgremont, BEGA (I). 
SS. Beenan and Sara, Dec. in, 
MM. in Persia. Their history is pro- 
raised in the coming volumes of the 
AA.SS. 

St. Bega ( i i, Oct. ;;i, Sept. (BEE, 
BI:I&gt;. Ui.i:/. BEZ, BEGAGH, BEGGA, BEGHA, 
L, BHEGA, VAYA, VKK, YI:&lt;;A, VEYA), 
V. 7th century. Patron of the north 
west of England, where she first landed ; 
and of Norway. Probable patron of 
places called Kilbucho, Kilbees, Kilbegie, 
Kilbagie, etc., and founder of a nunnery 
near ( arlislo, where the priory of Cope- 
land was afterwards built. 

legend is that St. Bega, commonly 
all-d ST. Ui:i: or ECJKEMONT, was the 
liter of an Irish king, and was the 
; beautiful woman in her country. 
! married to the King of 
.ay, but sin- had from her infancy 
1 herself to a religious, ascetic life, 
and in tok.-n ,f her betrothal to Christ 
had reerivrl from an angel a brand* -t 
marked with the sign of the cross. The 
i.i _rht I lTnn; her wedding-day, while the 
:ds and attendants were revelling or 
lied, taking the bracelet 
i her. Finding i\&lt;&gt; ship, she cut a 
4rf, and on it cn.ssed tlie sea to the 
.site coast. She lauded on a pronion- 



tory in Cumberland, then part of the 
kingdom of Northumbria. Here she 
lived in prayer and charity for a long 
time, and finally moved further inland 
for fear of pirates. In the Middle Ages 
she was especially appealed to against 
oppressors of the poor and against 
Scottish ricvt i-8. In the 12th century 
her bracelet was kept as a holy relic, 
on which persons were called upon to 
swear, as it was believed that a false 
oath made on that relic would be imme 
diately exposed and incur a dreadful 
vengeance. It is not impossible that, 
having moved inland for fear of ma 
rauders, she went further and further, 
and finally settled on the eastern coast 
of Northumbria, where Christianity was 
established and protected. On this sup 
position she is identified by some 
authorities, among them the Aberdeen 
Breviary, with ST. BEGU and ST. HEIU. 
She way be Begu, but I cannot see that 
she can be Heiu also. 

AA.SS. Boll. Brit. Sancta. Forbes, 
Scot. Cal. Montalembert, Monks. Laui- 
gan, Ecch 8. Hist. Butler, Licm. Chute- 
lain, Voc. 1I&lt;"/. 

St. Bega c-M, BEGU. 

St. Bega ( :J ), VEY. 

St. Begea, or Begeus, Dec. 2:i. 
Abbess in Kgypt. Giry, Diet. Hay. 

St. Begga ( 1 ), Dec. 17. 7th century. 
Patron of Auden. 

Represented ( 1 ) with a bear or boar, 
to show that she built her church in a 
place previously the resort of wild beasts, 
or in memory of a tradition that her 
grandson, Charles Martel, killed a bear 
at Andeu ; (2) with a hen and seven 
chickens, or a flock of ducks in a little 
pool. (The site of her churches is said 
to have been indicated to her by seven 
little animals grouped round their 
mother. ) She holds in her hand a com 
plicated building to represent the seven 
churches that she built. 

I M u r ga was daughter of Pepin of Laii- 
don, mayor of the palace under Clothairo 
II. (&lt;&gt;!:&gt;) and Dagobort I. &lt; Kings 

of France, and Sigebert II. (ii:is), King 
of . \nslrasia. Her mother was B. IDA. 
Jl T sister was the famous ST. CJEltTUUDE 
&lt;&gt;r \i\ i: 1.1.1 :. Begga married Ansigisilus, 
or Anchisus, souoi SS. Ar:iulf aiid D"i&gt;A. 



112 



ST. BEGGA 



Arnulf, or Arnoul, was of noble Frankish 
birth. Ansigisilus and Begga had a son, 
Pepin of Herstal, the second of the three 
great Pepins, and the father of Charles 
Martel. Ansigisilus met his death while 
hunting. Begga then made a pilgrimage 
to Rome, and on her return built seven 
chapels at Anden on the Mouse between 
Huy and Namur, in imitation of the 
seven principal churches in Rome. She 
also built a nuDiiery at Anden like that 
of her sister at Nivelle. Gertrude had 
long been dead. St. Wulfetrude, the 
second abbess, was dead too. AGNES, 
the third abbess, took care to give Begga 
the benefit of all that she had learned 
under the holy Gertrude, and sent nuns to 
train the new community. They took with 
them a piece of St. Gertrude s bed, and 
placed it near the altar of ST. GENOVEFA, 
in Begga s church, where it worked 
miraculous cures, and was adorned with 
votive oiferings of gold and precious 
stones. The monastery of Anden was 
afterwards converted into a collegiate 
church of thirty-two canonesses of noble 
families, with ten canons to officiate at 
the altar. Begga is said by some autho 
rities to have founded the Beguines, who 
devoted themselves to religion under 
simple vows not taken for life. The 
general opinion is that they were founded 
in the 12th century, by Lambert le 
Begue, a priest of Liege. R.M. Cahier. 
Butler, Lives. Bouquet, Rccueil, iii. 304, 
"Chronique de St. Denis." Pertz, 
Hausinder, p. 52. Mabillon, Contem 
porary Life of St. Gertrude. 

St. Begga (2), BEGA. 

St. Begghe, BEGA. 

St. Begha, BEGA. 

St. Begll, having dedicated her vir 
ginity to the Lord for thirty years and 
more, served Him in monastic conversa 
tion in the nunnery of Hackness, built 
by ST. HILDA shortly before her death. 
On Nov. 17, OH&lt;), Begu was sleeping in 
the dormitory with the other sisters. 
She suddenly heard the bell that called 
them to prayer when a soul was passing 
away. Immediately she saw the roof 
of the house open : a bright light filled 
the sky, and in that light the maid of 
Gocl, Hilda, was borne to heaven by 
angels. Begu arose, found the sisters all 



asleep, and knew that she had seen a 
vision. Running to Frigyd, who ruled 
in the absence of the Abbess Hilda, she 
told her that their dear mother had that 
moment departed from the earth. They 
all arose and prayed for the soul of the 
blessed abbess until, at dawn, some monks 
arrived to tell them of her death. (Bede, 
Eccl. Hist., book iv. chap. 2:&gt;.) Some 
modern writers identify her with HEIU, 
who is mentioned by Bcde in the same 
narrative. They seem to me to be two 
distinct persons. Some think she is ST. 
BEE OF EGREMONT (BEGA (1)), but this is 
mere conjecture and rests on no authority. 
Smith and Wace, Diet. " Heiu " and 
" Begu." 

St. Bela, Oct. 2S, M. with her fathc 
and mother, SS. Terence and NEONILLA 
her sister ST. EUNICE, and four brother 
They were delivered by angels from 
bonds and torments of various kinds 
They were thrown into boiling pitch 
which turned into water and did no 
hurt them. Then they were all beheaded 
Their worship is extensive, particularly 
in the Eastern Church. Their date anc 
history are unknown. AA.SS. 

Beli, German- Swiss for BARBARA. 

St. Belina, Sept. S. Date unknown 
V. M. of chastity, it is supposed, at Lan 
gres, in Champagne. Her head is pre 
served in the convent of Mores or Maures 
near Troyes, and is said to have been cu 
off by her persecutor, the Lord of Lan 
dreville, a place near Maures. AA.SS 
Martin, French Mart. 

Baring-Gould says she died at Lan 
dreville, in 1 1 ~&gt;3, was canonized in 1 203 
and her relics were dispersed at th 
Revolution. He also relates that hei 
murder caused an vfm-ute of the vassals 
who burned the castle and would have 
killed the seigneur of Pradines am 
dArcy. He escaped, but was excom 
municated and exiled. 

St. Bellande, BERLENDIS. 

St. Belleride, BERLENDIS. 

St. Bemba, V. M. at Rome. Hei 
festival is held March 2S, in the monas 
tery of Einsiedeln, in Switzerland. 

St. Beneacta, June 2 ( ,, Chastelain, 
Voc. Il ii. 

St. Benecutia, or DKXECUTIA, Maj 
14, M. in Africa. AA.SS. 



ST. BEXEDICTA 



113 



Benedetta. i A. 

St. Benedicta (1), July s. 1st cen 
tury. Wife of Count Sigebcrt of Bor- 
.b-aY.x, who was paralyzed for years. 
When ho heard of the miracles of St. 
Martial, he sent Benedicta, with offerings 
of Ljold and silver, to ask that saint to 
restore her husband to health. Seeing 
her faith, he promised what she asked, 
her his staff, and bade her lay it on 
her husband ; he would not receive the 
gold and silver, but baptized her and all 
her companions. Meantime the people 
of Bordeaux were worshipping their 
idols, and while the priest was burning 
incense, the devil declared he would de 
part from there at the command of a 
Hebrew named Martial. As Benedicta 
iteml the town, the old men of the 
place met her and told her all that was 
going on. She sent for the high priest 
and told him to destroy every temple in 
the place, except that to the unknown 
&lt;iod. Then, assisted by the prayers of 
her Christian brethren and companions, 
she went to her husband s bed, and laid 
the holy bishop s staff upon him. Sige- 
bert was instantaneously cured. His first 
act was to go to St. Martial, and ask for 
ism. The town of Bordeaux was 
on the point of l&gt;eiug destroyed by 
lire ; but the pious Beuedicta took the 
staff of St. Martial to meet the flames, 
and they immediately disappeared. 

When St. Martial was preaching at 

Mortagne, Sigebcrt and his soldiers went 

ike provisions to him and his people. 

ent a number of men to procure a 

quantity of fish. While they were at sea, 

a great storm came on. Benedicta saw 

that they were about to perish. She 

I her hands towards heaven and 

prayed, and they all came safe to land, 

with their boats, their nets, and their 

tisli. This story is told by Urdericus 

Vitalis, in his ///*/&gt;/// of the Normam, i. 

S m lye and 1 rrarius merely say 

Benedicta was baptix -d by St. Martial. 

St. Benedicta &lt; 2 i, July n, V. M. 

in tin- time of Nero. Slit- 
was carried naked through the city, but 

ne e&lt;&gt;nld s- e ht-r. At t r various 
tortures, she was put to death. ^L-1.&gt; N . 
/ ., from Tamayo Salaxar. 

St. Benedicta (8), Nov. 12, V. M. 



at Rome. She endured many tortures 
and insults, was miraculously encouraged 
and healed by an angel, and finally be 
headed. Viola Sanctorum. 

St. Benedicta (4), April 17, M. 236. 
Mother of SS. Alphius, Philadelphia, 
and Cyrinus. AA.S8., May In. 

St. Benedicta &lt; "&gt;), June 2&lt;&gt;, Sept. G, 
7 ( BKATA, locally BKATTE, BEXOITE DE 
SENS), V. M. c. 273. She went from 
Spain, with her brother St. Sauctian and 
St. Augustine, to Sens, in France, whore 
the Emperor Aurelian tried, by threats 
and promises, to make them renounce the 
Christian faith, offering them the highest 
honours in his court as the reward of 
apostasy, and the death of criminals in 
case they remained firm. They, on the 
other hand, told him how much greater 
were the honours and pleasures their 
Master prepared for them in the other 
world, and warned the Emperor where 
he would go, and whom he would associ 
ate with eventually, unless ho were con 
verted. Finally they were beheaded. 
/, ..!/., June 21 . AA.SS., June 2(3 and 
Sept. 0. Martin, French Mart., Sept. 7. 

St. Benedicta (6), Jan. 4, V. M. 
at Kome, . {J2, with SS. Priscus and Pre- 
scillian, in the persecution under Julian 
the Apostate. jRJJ. AA.SS. 

St. Benedicta (7), Oct. 8, more 
commonly called SAIMI: BI-XOITE, V. 
M. :&gt;i2, under Julian the Apostate. 
Patron of Origuy ( Auriiiiacum). The 
li iiinni Mdttiiroloijij mentions four holy 
virgins of this name, on Jan. 4, May 0, 
Juno 2! i, Oct. S. The one best known 
in France was the daughter of a llomaii 
senator. Despising the pleasures of the 
world, she took twelve young girls to 
lead a religious life in her house. Hoar- 
ing of the martyrdom of St. Queiitiii and 
his companions in Picardy, she set off 
with her twelve friends to seek martyr 
dom in Gaul. They stayed some time 
ut the capital of Vermandois, now called 
St. (^ueutiu; then they dispersed, to ex 
tend the knowledge of Christianity in 
different directions. Benedicts and her 
fofternrister, LBOBEBIA, went to Origny- 
sur-Oise, in the diocese of Laon, and 
made many converts. Their cell is be 
lieved to have been at Mont d &lt; )rigny, 
a village near the town of &lt; )rigny. 

I 



114 



ST. BEXEDICTA 



Matroclns, the prefect, a Jew, After trying 
in vain to turn Beneclicta from her 
religion, had her beaten until she was a 
mass of wounds; she was then thrown 
into a dark dungeon : her wounds were 
healed by an angol. This miraculous 
cure caused the conversion of fifty-five 
persons. Matroclus, exasperated, cut off 
her head with his own hand. Local 
tradition fixes the site of her martyrdom 
at a place called Les Arlrcs &lt;lu TliiJ, an 
enclosure of about twenty-two acres, 
surrounded by trees and hedges, where 
many devotees resort every Sunday. 

Of the twelve companions of St. Bene- 
dicta, Father Giry only mentions SS. 
LEOBERIA, YOLAINE or YOLAND, CAMIONA, 
and KOMANA. St. Yolaine is honoured 
at Pleines Selves, about three miles from 
Origny; and St. Camiona, near Le- 
Mesnil-Saint-Laurent, about five miles 
from Origny, in the territory of Lugdu- 
num Clavatum, which is Laon, not 
Lyons; the double meaning of Lugdu- 
num has given rise to a fictitious ST. 
BENEDICTA OF LYONS (Chastelain, Foe. 
Hay.). A monastery was built over her 
tomb in the Oth or 7th century. After 
wards a nunnery of the Order of St. 
Benedict, dedicated in the names of SS. 
Mary and Benedicta, was built at Origny 
(Diet, dcs Abbaycs). 

Constantino Suysken, in AA.SS., Oct. 
8, gives her fabulous Ads and a discussion 
as to the place and date of her life and 
death. Baillet considers her story to be 
a copy of that of St. Romana, and that 
a copy of the history of ST. SATURNINA. 
There are numerous instances in which 
the history of one saint has been adapted 
to another. The history of St. Romana 
can only be traced to within eight hun 
dred years of the date ascribed to that 
martyr. 

St. Benedicta (8) of Lyons. (See 
BKNKDICTA or OIIIONY.) 

St. Benedicta ), June 27, M. A 
venerable Christian, who was martyred 
with SS. Crispus and Crispinian in :&gt;52. 
Benedicta is sometimes called Virgin, 
sometimes Matron. Boll., AA.SS., June 
27. 

St. Benedicta ( 1 &lt; &gt; ). Mentioned in a 
Litanyused in England in the 7th century. 
This is probably one of the early martyrs 



already mentioned. English Mart. Ma- 
billon, Vetcm Anli&lt;t, pp. r&gt;(j&lt;), ct srq. 

St. Benedicta (11), May o. Friend 
and fellow-nun of ST. GALLA (\ &lt; ), at 
Rome, in the Oth century. Her head is 
said to be still preserved at Rome. 11. ^T. 
Henschenius. AA.SS. 

St. Benedicta (12), Aug. 17. 7th 
century. A Spanish abbess, disciple of 
St. Fructuosus. He was a martyr in the 
Mrd century. Espaha Sagmdaj xxv. 
168. Bucelinus. Guenebault. 

St. Benedicta (i:-M, Aug. 17. mth 
century. Abbess of Susteren. Daughter 
of St. Zuentibold, king of Lotharingia, 
who died in 000, and was the son of the 
Emperor Arnulf (887-81W ). She became 
a nun at Susteren with her sisters, SS. 
CECILIA and BELINDA, under the direction 
of a holy virgin named Amelberga, after 
whose death Benedicta became abbess, 
and was, in her turn, succeeded by Cecilia. 
The three sisters are commemorated to 
gether, Nov. 10. AA.SS. Bucelinus, 
Men. l$en. Lechner, J3en. Ordcus. 

B. Benedicta (U), June 28. A lay- 
sister in the nunnery of Petra, near 
Subiaco. Her real name has not come 
down to us, so she is called after the 
founder of her order. One day the 
abbess sent her some distance, with an 
ass, to fetch flour from a mill. She said 
her prayers while the corn was being 
ground, and went on with more prayers, 
although the miller warned her that it 
was going to rain, and that she would 
not get home at the time required by 
the rule. When her prayers were ended, 
it was quite dark and pouring wet, but 
she arrived safely at the monastery, with 
the new supply of flour, the donkey, and 
her own clothes perfectly dry. The 
abbess said to her, " You must be tired 
after your long walk. Go to bed." 
Benedicta said, "Let me first say my 
usual prayers in the chapel." AVhile 
she was there, the other nuns made 
supper ready for her, and as she did not 
come for some time, they went to fetch 
her. They found her kneeling with her 
hands clasped, and her head up quite 
dead. They buried her in that attitude. 
Long afterwards, in 140:*, her body was 
found in perfect preservation, and after 
the nunnery was destroyed, her story was 



B. BKNVKNfTA BO JAM 



115 



remembered, and a chapel was built in 
her honour. Bucelinus. M&gt; //. 1&gt;&gt; n. 

St. Benedicta i L5), nth century. 
Daughter of St. Anfroy, count of Huy 
and Louvjiin, afterwards Bishop of 
I trecht. She succeeded her mother, 
ST. Hr.i:s \vi\n, as Abbess of Torenno or 
Thora. They aro numbered among tlio 
saints of Liege. Stadler, from Bartho 
lomew Lesen, Florcs Ecclexise L&lt; "&lt;H&lt; //s/.s-. 

B. Benedicta (! ), March 16, Oct. 
19, V. fl2t&gt;M. Succeeded ST. CI.AKA 
as Abbess of St. Damian s, at Assisi, in 
Umbria, 12.":&gt;. Held in great veneration 
at Assisi, but has not been inserted in 
the martyrologies. AA.SS. 

B. Benedicta (17). f 1: H - Suc- 
led II. CATHKKIXK MOKIGIA, in 147s, 
as second Abbess of Monte Varasio. 
Benedicta enriched the community and 
enlarged the convent. By the desire of 
the sisters and permission of the Pope, 
she continued abbess until her death, 
notwithstanding the rule that each 
superior should hold office for three 
years only. She was succeeded by the 
" Illumined Sister," Lucretia Alciati, 
who brought a large fortune to the 
sisterhood. Helyot, Hist. Ord. MOH., iv. 
ch. 9. 

St. Benigna, Jnne 2o, V. M. 124 J. 
Cistercian nun at Wratislaw, in Poland. 
Taken captive and slain for her adhe 
rence to her innocence and Christian 
faith, by the Tartars who overran Poland 
in the time of Henry the Pious, son of 
Ih.i wu;. Bucelinus, Men. lien. 
-1 -I .SS. t Prseter. Henriquez, Liliit Cist., 
June I . . 

St. Benilda, June i:&gt;. f s:&gt;:j. A 
old woman. One of the martyrs 
"i Cordova. Beheaded the day after 
ST. DION A. It.M. Henschenius, in Boll., 
AA.SS. St. Mule-gins, Nnn. Stmct. 
Baillet, Vies. 

St. Benonia, or Boxosrs, April 29. 
Tt is uncertain whether this is the name 
of man. woman, or place. AA.SS. 

St. Benu, Jan. i;, is honoured by 
tin- ( upts as a martyr. 

B. Benvenuta &lt; i ) Bojani, &lt; &gt;&lt;-t. 2 . 
"i- 30. I2.YI-I2 .2. O.S.I). When 
she was born at Cividale of Austria, in 
Friuli, no one dared to tell her father 
that lie had a seventh daughter, as lie 



was very anxious for a son. When at 
last he heard it, ho said. " Sho is 
welcome; lot her be named Benvenuta" 
\Velcomej. Sho and her sister Mary 
made a vow of celibacy at a very early 
age. Benvenuta had a special devotion 
to St. Dominic, saw diabolical and 
celestial apparitions, and practised 
wonderful austerities from her child 
hood. She suffered so much from 
numbness, tremor, and breathlessneis 
that she could not lie down, and had for 
some years to take all her rest sitting in 
a chair. She was carried to church once 
a week. At last she was cured by 
St. Dominic, and, accompanied by her 
brother and sister, made a pilgrimage to 
his shrine at Bologna, in fulfilment of a 
vow. They passed through Venice and 
Padua, and returned home to Cividale, 
where she lived in perfect health for 
some years. The Dominican nuns there 
were much edified by her piety, and 
invited her to stay with them in their 
convent of Cella whenever she chose. 
By her prayers she cured one of the 
sisters of a mysterious and painful dis 
order to which she was subject every 
winter. She cured another of blindness. 
Sho delivered the souls of several of her 
friends and relations from purgatory ; 
had the gift of prophecy ; took the form 
of absent persons, and performed their 
duties ; had frequent raptures and 
ecstasies. She died in her own house, 
12 . 2. Many people of rank, as well as 
many of the lower class, came from the 
surrounding towns to make a visit of 
devotion to her body, touching it with 
rings, beads, etc., that they might 
thereby receive the virtue of holy charms. 
The abbess and nuns of the great Bene 
dictine convent were among those who 
visited her before her burial. Sin- was 
carried to the Dominican church by the 
friars, and a short sermon was preached 
by her confessor, Conrad, prior of 
Verona, in which lie related two of her 
miracles that of her cure by St. Dominic 
already mentioned, and that of the rope. 
While yet very young she girt herself so- 
tightly with a rope that as she grow it 
became cmbedd- &lt;1 in her flesh, and caused 
her great suffering. It could only bo 
removed by a surgical operation. As 



lift 



B. BEXVEXrTA 



this idea was painful to her delicacy, 
she had recourse to prayer. Falling 
into a rapture, she found, on her return 
to a sense of earthly things, that the rope 
was lying beside her on the floor. The 
people begged to hear more about her. 
Conrad preached another sermon the 
following Sunday, in which he related 
several miraculous circumstances con 
cerning the departed saint. He said 
that for five years the angel Gabriel fed 
her daily with food from heaven. 
During that time she never ate any 
earthly food without its producing in 
stant sickness, the sacramental bread 
excepted. She was buried in the tomb 
of her family outside the church. Some 
time afterwards her body was diligently 
sought, in order to lay it with greater 
honour in the church. It could not be 
found, and was supposed to have been 
carried off by Dominican friars to 
Bologna or Kavenna. Her Life in 
Modern Saints, edited by the Fathers of 
the Oratory. Mart. O.F.P., Oct. 2 ( ,. 
A.B.M. Pio. 

B. Benvenuta (2). i:3th century. 
O.S.F. One of the first nuns under 
ST. CLARA. (See AGNES OF ASSISI.) 

St. Bera, BE ATA (1). 

St. Berathgit, BEUGIT, or BEKTHGITH. 
8th century. Daughter of ST. BILHILD (2), 
or GUXTIIILD. They were taken by St. 
Boniface from Wimborne to Thuringia, 
and set over his convent schools there. 
Tlturinijia Sacra (Frankfort, 1787). Two 
letters from Berthgith to her brother 
Balthard are among the letters of St. 
Boniface and St. Lullus. Smith and 
Wace, Diet, of Christian Bioyrnpliy, re 
ferring to Jaffe s Monumrnta Moyuntice. 

St. Beredina. (# &lt; VICTORIA (2).) 

St. Berelendis, BKKLKXDIS. 

St. Berema, BKATA (l). 

B. Berengaria, March s. f c. 1 250. 
Daughter of Ferdinand III., king of 
Leon and Castile. Sister of Alfonso, 
king of the llomans. In 1 240 she took 
the Cistercian habit at Holga, near 
Burgos. Mentioned by Henriquez and 
Bucelinus. AA.SS., Prset&lt; r. 

St. Berenice ( l ), VKKOMCA &lt; l &gt;. 
: St. Berenice (2), or BKKINNA. 
Daughter of DOMXIXA (8). 

St. Bergit, UKKATIKMT, not Birgit. 



St. Berinna, or BKKKXICK, M. at 
Antioch with her mother and sister, 
DOMMNA (:&gt;) and Puosixx i:. 

St. Beriona, BIMMAXA. 

St. Berlendis, Fob. :i (BELLANDE, 
BKLI.KKIDK, BKUUXDA). 7th century. 
Commemorated with NONA and CELSK at 
Meerbeck, in Brabant. Represented 
with a cow beside her. Patron of 
peasants. Invoke! against contagious 
diseases of animals. She also protects 
trees, particularly those transplanted on 
her day. Berlendis is specially honoured 
at Tin-le-Moutiers, in Ketelois. Accord 
ing to Bucelinus, her mother was Nona, 
sister of St. Amandus. Her father was a 
wealthy noble, who served under Dago- 
bert I., king of France. His name was 
Odelardus. He suffered from leprosy, 
produced by his pious austerities. Ber 
lendis offended him beyond forgiveness, 
because she rinsed his cup before drink 
ing out of it herself. For this act he 
disinherited her, and left everything to 
ST. GEKTKUDE. His daughter realized 
that she had erred : she became a nun 
at Morsella, and manifested her repent 
ance by giving up all luxuries and rest 
ing content with poor food and plain 
raiment. One day she heard angels 
singing as they carried her father s soul 
to heaven. Knowing by this sign that 
he was dead, she went to .Meerbeck and 
buried him. On her death she was 
buried in a wooden tomb, on account of 
the scarcity of stone. The wood, how 
ever, was, by supernatural agency, turned 
into stone. Her body was afterwards 
removed from its original resting-place, 
upon which occasion many miracles were 
performed. Those who assisted at the 
translation had their food wonderfully 
increased. At Meerbeck there is a 
representation of St. Berlendis with her 
cow, rudely cut in wood. The peasants 
come and reverently touch the udder, for 
the good of their own cows and dairies. 
At one time the proceedings at her fes 
tival were so riotous that it came to be 
called the Drunken Vespers, and in the 
1 6th century the clergy were forbidden 
to take part in it. St. Celse was, per 
haps, her disciple or her sister. Boll., 
AA.SS. Bio j. Univ., " Odelard." Ecken- 
stein. Cahier. Chastelain, Voc. Hay. 



ST. UKKTIIA 



117 



She is mentioned by Saussaye, Molanus, 
Labierius, and Ferrarius. 
St. Berlinda, BERLMNDI& 
St. Beroma, BKMA i i i. 
St. Beronica, YI:KM A (_i). 
St. Bertana, EHEMBEUTA, HKUKM- 
ri i; in v, or IREMBEKTANA, Oct. 1 "&gt;. End 
of 7tb or beginning of 8th century. 
Abbess. Niece of St. Vuliner, Abbot of 
Silviac, near Boulogne. Silviac was 
afterwards called Samer- (i.e. St. VulmerJ 
in-the-Wood, to distinguish it from 
another monastery of St. Vuliner built 
by P&gt;. IDA, widow, within the walls of 
Boulogne. Bertana was a nun in 
authority, under Vuliner, at Wiere, near 
Sunier. When she and her fellow-nuns 
could get no food, he refreshed them 
with a mellifluous sermon. AA.SS. 

St. Bertha (l). f G1 -- Queen of 
Kent, first Christian queen in England. 
She was tin daughter of Charibert, one 
of the lour brothers who became kings 
of France in ,"&gt;G1. Her mother was the 
pious Ingoberga. She married Ethel- 
bert, king of Kent, who promised her 
free exercise of her own religion. She 
took as her chaplain to England, Liud- 
hard, a bishop. Ethelbert gave him a 
little church at ( anterbury, built during 
the Roman occupation of Britain, and 
still standing. Liudhard restored it, 
and dedicated it in the name of St. 
Martin. It is the oldest church in 

land, and has been used continuously 
since that time. The additions of dif- 

;t periods are distinctly visible. 

ha s character and conduct predis 
posed the king in favour of Christianity, 
ami when, in .". .Mi, St. Gregory, the Pope, 
sent a band of missionary monks to 
Mn.L land, under Augustine, they were 
received with respect. The king and 
many others listened to their teaching. 
On Whitsunday. .V. T, Kthelbert declared 
himself a Christian, and was baptized; 
and his example was quickly followed by 
many of his people. He gave his own 
house at Canterbury to Augustine, who 
there founded a church, now the cathe 
dral. Kthelbert and Bertha, standing 
between Augustine and Li ud hard, appear 
in the windows of tin- nave of ( anterbury 
Cathedral, among the early English 
saints. St. Bertha figures in the windows 



of the Roman Catholic Church of Rams- 
. She is spoken of at Canterbury 
as * St. Bertha," but it is not clear that 
she has ever been worshipped, and she 
has no dedications. Dean Stanley. 
Moiitalembert. SS. ETHELBUUGA (1) and 
EDBUUGA ( 1 ) were her daughters. 

St. Bertha &lt; 2 ), May i, Aug. :ii, Oct. 
12, V. M. \Vife of St. Gombert, lord 
of Champenois, who was of the royal 
family of France. He built her a nun 
nery at Avenay, near Rlieims. He then 
retired to a monastery which he had 
built on the seashore. Hero he was 
killed by idolaters, towards the end of 
the 7th century. After his death, St. 
Bertha, in obedience to a vision, re 
moved with her nuns to Val d Or, near 
Avenay. The nuns and the people of 
Avenay being in great want of water, 
St. Peter appeared to Bertha, and guided 
her to a garden where there was a good 
spring. She bought it for a pound of 
silver (according to Martin, about sixty 
francsj, and traced with her distaff a 
little furrow from the spring to her 
convent ; the water ran along the line, 
deepening its channel as it flowed. She 
called the stream Libra, because it was 
bought for a pound ; and there it flows 
to this day, an abundant supply of beauti 
ful, clear water, curing many infirmities, 
and witnessing the truth of the legend 
of the distaff. The Privigni, Gombert s 
ilatious, were very angry because 
Bertha gave to the poor a great deal 
that they hoped to get for themselves. 
S.i they murdered her, and wore imme 
diately seized by the devil, and tore 
themselves to pieces, all but one a 
woman named Xuncia, who had some 
pangs of repentance. Many years after 
wards, Bertha appeared to her and said, 
" If thou wouldst bo forgiven, bring the 
body of my blessed husband and lay it 
beside mine." Nuucia said, " But how 
shall I know that I am forgiven for so 
great a crime ? " Bertha answered, 
" As soon as you have fulfilled my com 
mand, blood will gush from your noso 
and mouth. By that sign you will 
know that you are forgiven." Without 
delay, Xuneia set about her pious task, 
and had (it Hubert s l&gt;ody brought to the 
convent church of Val d Or. She then 



118 



ST. BERTHA 



addressed the body of Bertha* asking if 
she was forgiven. Immediately the 
blood spouted out of her nose and mouth. 
A hundred years afterwards Bertha s 
body was found fresh and life-like, and 
when the two bodies were taken to the 
place where she had been killed, her 
wounds bled afresh. Papebroch, in 
AAJSS.j May 1, from her Acts in the 
ancient office of the church of Avenay. 
Martin s edition of Surius d Apres 
Lipoman. 

St. Bertha (:- &gt;), July 4. -f- c. 725 or 
7: {."&gt;. Abbess and founder of Blangy, in 
Artois. 

Represented with her two daughters 
dressed as nuns. They are drawn on a 
very small scale, to indicate their minor 
importance. 

Daughter of Rigobert, count of the 
Palace, under Clovis IL (038-05 0), and 
Ursana, his wife, who was of English 
descent and related to the wife of Clovis. 
Bertha married a relation of the king, 
Count Sigfried, son of Prince Rigomar 
and ST. GERTRUDE OP HAMAY. They 
had five daughters, GERTRUDE, DEOTILA, 
Emma, Gesa, and Gesta, all of whom 
did credit to the training of their pious 
parents. When they had been married 
twenty years, Sigfried died and was 
buried in his own ground at Blangy. 
Then Bertha left off silk and jewels, 
took the habit of a nun, and resolved to 
build a church on her husband s estate. 
As soon, however, as the building had 
made a little progress, it fell down. She 
built again, on another spot. When tho 
church was finished and ready to be 
consecrated, and while Bertha was on a 
visit to ST. RICTRUDE, abbess of Mar- 
chiennes, about thirty miles from Blangy, 
the church fell with such a noise that 
Bertha and Rictrudo heard it as they 
sat talking. Rictrude tried to comfort 
Bertha by saying that it was the will of 
God she should build on another site. 
At Bertha s request a fast of three days 
was strictly observed at Marchiennes, 
and during that time fervent prayers 
were offered for the success of her 
scheme, and for Divine direction as to 
the situation of the church. At the end 
of the third day an angel showed in a 
dream, to one of the workmen, a fitting 



spot at Terouanne, beside the river 
Thena, where the foundations were 
already lined out. There she built her 
famous church and monastery. Germain 
of Paris, Eligius, bishop of Noyon, and 
several bishops who were afterwards 
honoured as saints, assisted at the con 
secration. When they were all assembled 
for the consecration, there was no hyssop. 
Consequently, Ravengarius, bishop of 
Terouanne, refused to proceed with the 
ceremony. Bertha was in great distress 
that she had gathered together so many 
holy and worthy men, and still it seemed 
that the consecration of her church must 
be deferred. However, while she was 
in her oratory engaged in fervent prayer, 
a man came to the door with hyssop. 
Bertha thanked God, and thought that 
at last all would now be well, but 
another of her people came to tell her 
that the bishops, finding there was to be 
no ceremony, had gone away. She, 
however, sent after them in all haste, 
and they prophesied that great blessings 
would rest on her undertaking, as she 
had persevered and had at length been 
assisted by a miracle. The church and 
convent were consecrated, and Bertha 
and her two eldest daughters received 
the veil, A.D. &lt;&gt;S2. The three younger 
daughters continued with her. Roger, 
one of the king s great nobles, a proud 
man, seeking mundane and transitory 
gratification, earnestly entreated Bertha 
to grant him the hand of Gertrude, her 
eldest daughter. Bertha replied that 
her daughter was already the bride of 
Christ, and that she could enter into no 
negotiation for her. He went to the 
king, one of ST. BATHILDE S sons, and told 
him that Count Sigfried had promised 
him the hand of his eldest daughter, 
and the greater part of his estates as 
her dowry. He then returned to Blangy 
with a strong band of followers, armed 
with the king s authority to marry 
Gertrude. Again failing to extort the 
consent of the mother, Roger swore 
he would not go away without seeing 
Gertrude. Bertha agreed to this. She 
kept the soldiers waiting until the hour 
of evening prayer, and while the nuns 
began to sing the service, the doors 
of the church were thrown open, and 



ST. BERTHA 



tig 



"the rebel to God," saw ami 
heard tin-in all singing the prayers 
ami psalms. Before the altar, in a free 
space within ten paces of him, stood the 
girl all these soldiers had come to carry 
ofl*. Bertha said, " Behold, the servant 
and spouse of Christ is present, veiled by 
the holy bishops, and solemnly devoted 
at the altar where she stands ! If you 
&lt;lare to take her away from the Lord, take 
h T: wo women can offer no resistance, 
but God will avenge us ! " Roger did 
not dare to take Gertrude, but went 
uway in a rage, and vowed vengeance oil 
Bertha. Ho immediately went to the 
king, and accused the Countess Bertha 
of treasonable correspondence with the 
English. King Thierry summoned 
Bertha to answer the charge. She went 
without fear, trusting in her integrity. 
Roger came to meet her, under pretence 
of doing her honour, but really to cast 
a slight upon her by contriving that she 
should ride to the palace on a miserable 
horse, without the usual trappings. 
Radulph, however, of pious memory, met 
the venerable abbess thus unworthily 
mounted, and at once exchanged horses 
with her, at the same time reproaching 
Roger for his disrespect. The king was 
soon convinced of the innocence of Bertha, 
and sent her home in peace with a guard 
of honour. On her return she enlarged 
and beautified her convent and built ten 
churches, eight in honour of St. Martin, the 
other two in honour of St. Audomar and St. 
V hist respectively. Then wishing to 
retire from the government of the house 
and to devote the remainder of her life 
to prayer, she promoted Deotila to the 
office of abbess instead of Gertrude, 
i use of the trouble and scandal Roger 
had caused on her ace. mnt, and had a 
cell built in the church, where she 
passed all her time; she had a little 
window near the altar. Her two 
daughters and the sixty nuns came to 
her every day to bo refreshed with 
spiritual advice and instruction. Her 
two youngest daughters, Gesa and Gesta, 
&lt;li"l young. Kmina, her third daughter, 
was given in marriage by Thierry, king 
&lt; t I- ranee, to \V;ini&lt;-linus, :i kinjj; of tho 
Anglo-Saxons. St. Bertha, hearing of his 
cruelty and infidelity to her daughter, 



invited her to visit her at Blangy. Emma 
set off with her husbaud scoiisent. During 
the voyage, she was seized with fever 
and died. When Bertha heard of it, she 
ordered every thing to be prepared for 
a funeral befitting her daughter s rank, 
and went to meet tho corpse. "Alas, 
my beloved daughter," she said, " I see 
your face, bnt you are not able to see 
me." Hereupon Emma opened her eyes 
and looked at her mother. Bertha had 
her taken into the convent and buried 
with all honour. 

St. Bertha died at the age of sixty- 
nine, about the year 725 or 735. At 
the moment of her death three men, in 
shining raiment, were seen standing by 
to take her soul to heaven. Deotila 
ruled tho convent with her mother for 
twenty-nine years, and was solo abbess 
for some time. Gertrude succeeded her. 

In 805, during an invasion of tho 
Normans, the nuns fled from Blangy to 
tho monastery of Estrues at Strasburg. 
They took with them, as their most 
sacred treasures, the bodies of tho 
sainted founder and her two daughters, 
Gertrude and Deotila. They brought 
them back on their return to Blaugy, 
many years afterwards. 

Seller says tho Life of St. Bertha is 
by an anonymous author of :the loth 
or 1 1 th century, and that it is well 
established that she was worshipped 
directly after her death. Her marriage 
and her foundations are facts, but the 
story of Roger cannot be traced to any 
contemporary source, and is attributed 
by Haillet to an author " de mauvaise foi 
ct fort i/norant" 

Bouquet, ifrcueiV, iii. 021. J. B. 
Soller, in AA.SS., from MS. Ada pre 
served in her monastery. Baillet, 1 "/*. 
Butler, Liv&lt;8. Mabillon, AA.SS., O.S.B., 
sice, ii. Duchesne, Script. Franc., i. 
&lt; ."). Her name occurs in the Auctaria 
to Usuard, July 4. 

St. Bertha (4) of Bingen, May 15. 
J" c. s&lt; s. She was tho daughter of a 
Christian prince of Lothariugia, and 
married Robold, a heathen duke of 
Bingen. She was soon left a widow 
with a son Rupert, three years old, from 
whom tho Rupcrtsbcrg took its name. 
Bertha retired from her castle, and 



120 



B. BERTHA 



devoted the rest of her life to ftie service 
of Christ. Rupert from his earliest 
infancy exhibited an unusual gentleness 
and sweetness. His mother had him 
well instructed, and resolved that he 
should rule in his father s stead and 
protect the Church. He was good to 
the poor, and spent lavishly in building 
churches and places of refuge for them. 
Resolved, however, to become, like his 
blessed Lord, a stranger upon earth, he 
left his home and made a pilgrimage to 
Rome, where he won all hearts by his 
gentle goodness. Here he met holy 
men, who warned him to remember the 
words of St. Matthew s Gospel, " Go, 
sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, 
and then come and follow Me." Rupert 
resolved to follow their advice, and re 
turned at length to his mother. He 
then divided all his possessions, which 
were very great, amongst his servants 
and followers, with special provision for 
the care of the poor, and retired from 
the world. He soon afterwards died of 
a fever, in his twentieth year, and was 
buried in a church which he had built. 
After his death Bertha gave herself up 
more than ever to good works, fasting, 
almsgiving, and prayer, and after twenty- 
five years of patient waiting, she died, 
and was buried in the same grave with 
her son on the Rupertsberg. ST. HILDE- 
GARD calls her Beata. Tritheim speaks 
of her as a holy woman. Pictures of 
the 1 Oth century represent her with the 
nimbus. Henschenius, in AA.SS. 

B. Bertha (r&gt;; of Biburg, O.S.B. 
1151. Represented with St. Everard, 
offering to a bishop and an abbot, who 
appear in the clouds, documents with 
seals hanging from them ; in the back 
ground is a church in process of building. 
She wears the halo of a saint. Only 
sister of ten brothers, to whom Biburg 
belonged. One of these was St. Everard, 
first abbot of Biburg, and afterwards 
bishop of Salzburg. With the help 
and advice of St. Otho, bishop of Bam- 
berg, Bertha built a church of the Order 
of St. Benedict, and a hospice for the 
poor, at Bibnrg. Barefooted, she carried 
the stones, and assisted in the pious 
work, not only with her wealth, but with 
the labours of her hands. Other women 



followed her example. The temple was 
finished in eight years, and was opened 
by St. Otho of Bamberg, and Henry, 
bishop of Ratisbon. Bertha lies buried 
at Biburg. Jinrarifi Snncta. 

St. Bertha ( , ), March 24, V. Ab 
bess. O.S.B. f 11(3:i - Daughter of 
Lothario di Ugo, count of Vernio. She 
is called, by Bucelinus and others, Bertha 
de Bardi. It seems more probable that 
she belonged to the family of Alberti, 
who were counts of Yernio in the 12th 
century; the county only passed into 
the hands of the Bardi in the 14th 
century. She was born at Florence, 
and was very pious from her infancy. 
In 114o she took the veil in the convent 
of ST. FELICITAS, in Florence, whence 
she was sent by the Blessed Gnaldo 
Galli, general of the Order of Yallam- 
brosa (a branch of the Benedictines), to- 
reform and preside over the monastery 
of St. Mary, at Capriola or Cavriglia, 
in Yaldarno. Bertha was distinguished 
by miracles and regarded as a saint. 
She was not buried among the other 
nuns, but laid in a coffin under the high 
altar of the chapel. Brocchi, Suuti 
Toscani. Bucelinus, Men. Ben. Helyot, 
Ordrcs Monastiqucs,\. 2l. Boll., AA.SS- 
Bucelinus says she was descended from 
counts of Ravenna. 

B. Bertha (7), countess of Raven- 
stein. Founder or restorer of the abbey 
of Elchingen. 12th century. Honoured 
by the people of Bavaria for having 
driven away the wild geese from the 
banks of the Upper Danube. Her day 
is unknown to Cahier. She is not Berthe 
Pedauque, nor the Queen of Sheba. 
Cahier, Cracteristiqu&lt;s, voc. " Oie." 

St. Bertha ( S ) de Marbais, July IS. 
"f 1247. Cistercian nun at Aquiria, and 
first Abbess of Marquette, or Marchet, 
near Lille, which was founded by Jane, 
countess of Flanders, in 1227. Migne. 
.Diet, dt 8 Abbayes. Henriquez and Bol- 
landus. 

Ven. Bertha ( - ) Jacobi, June 2:&gt;. 
142 7- ir&gt; 14. A professed sister of the 
rule of Anchorites, she lived at Utrecht 
more than fifty-seven years, in her cell, 
barefooted, without fire, tasting neither 
flesh nor milk, and wearing only a hair 
shirt and a single tunic winter and 



ST. BESSIA 



121 



summer. She died at the age of eighty- 
seven, and was buried, by her own 
desire, in the spot where she had led 
this penitential life. D. Papebroch, in 
tin- Acta Sanctorum. Appended to his 
account is a copy of the rule of the 
Anchorites. 

St. Bertheline, or BEUTILINE, patron 
of Senois, in Guicnnc. Pctits Bol- 
\andisti *. 

St. Berthgith, BEUATHGIT. 

St. Berthilla, BERTILLA. 

St. Bertilana, BERTILLA (3). 

St. Bertilda, BERTILLA (1). 

St. Bertilia, BEUTILLA. 

St. Bertiline, BERTHELINE. 

St. Bertilia &lt; 1 ),May 11 (BERTHILIA, 
BEIITILIAJ. -f c. 660. Of Curtissolra, 
or Conrtsohrc, in Hainault. Wife of 
St. Walbert, duke of Louvaine, under 
Clothairo II. Mother of the holy ab 
besses SS. WALTHUDE and ALDEGUND. 
She had also a son, St. Ablebert. Pape 
broch, in AA.SS. Martin. 

St. Bertilia ( 2 &gt;, Jan. :j (BKRTHILIA, 
or BEHTILIA). ( 687. Patron of Mar- 
cenil. Of noble and wealthy parents. 
Married (luthland. They spent their 
lives and fortune in works of mercy and 
piety. After Guthland s death, Bertilia 
gave her property to the Church, only 
reserving one small estate, on which she 
built a church in honour of Amandus, 
and a monastery at Marceuil, in Artois, 
wl.-ro she was buried. Gerard, second 
bi&gt;hop of Artois, had her bones taken 
ii] i. to honour her as a saint. They are 
still venerated there. Pilgrimages for 
diseases of the eyes are made to tho 
fountain of St. Bertilla at Marceuil. 
AA.SS. Saiissayc, Mart. Gall. 

St. Bertilia (3), or BERTILANA, Nov. 
5, and Juno 27, V. "\ &lt;&gt;i2 or 702. 
A hi .ess of &lt; holies. Patron of Chelles, 
I uiirre, and perhaps of Marolles. It 
is more likely that it is by con 
founding her with her contemporary 
! riLLA (2) that she has been called 
"ii of Marollcf*. Invoked against 
\ellings, sore throats, diseases 
&gt;f horses, storms, hernia in children. 
Sli. was a member of a noble family at 
Soissons, in the reign of Dagobert I. 
HT parents at first opposed her voca 
tion, but afterwards placed her in tho 



monastery of Jouarre, near Meaux, newly 
founded by St. Ado, brother of her friend 
and adviser St. Owen, and where ST. 
TEUTEHILD was abbess. Bertilla ac 
quitted herself so well that she was 
chosen prioress, and when Queen BA- 
THILDE refounded the monastery of 
Chelles on the Marne, she bogged St. 
Teutehild to send Bertilla and a few 
nuns to establish tho new community. 
Bertilla was tho first Abbess of Chelles, 
and ruled for forty-six years, during 
which ST. BATHILDE, queen of France, 
took the veil there. The English queen, 
ST. HKHESWITHA, was probably a nun 
there when Bertilla arrived. Under 
Bertilla, Cholles became one of tho 
famous schools of piety to which English 
ladies resorted when they wanted to be 
trained in monastic life ; some remained 
there, and some, after a time, returned 
to teach their countrywomen, and to 
plant in England new gardens of living 
trees bearing the fruit o/ good works. 
Bertilla was ambitious of martyrdom, 
but as no persecutors were forthcoming, 
she martyred herself with austerities. 
It is related that a nun spoke unkindly 
to her in a moment of ill temper. Ber 
tilla did not answer, but prayed that 
God would judge between them. A few 
days afterwards the nun died. Bertilla, 
fearing that her imprecation might have 
brought this judgment, entreated tho 
dead woman s forgiveness. Thereupon 
tho nun came to life, and said that she 
forgave Bertilla, and that God had for 
given them both. She then closed her 
eyes again in death. Butler, Lives. 
Baillet, Vies. Bucelinus, Men. Ben., 
June 27. Menard, Mnrt. Ben., Nov. 4. 
Giry, Diet. Hag. 

St. Bertoara, or BERTRADE, Dec. 4. 
7th century. According to Martin s 
French MnrtyroltHjy, St. Bertoara is 
patron of tho church of Sales, in Savoy, 
whr.ro she was a nun, and is honoured 
at Bourges. 

St. Bertrade, BERTOARA. 

St. Bertrana, July 20, V. Abbess. 
S.inssayc, Appendix to Mart. Gall. 

St. Besia, M. 

St. Bessa, Dec. 18, M. P.B. 

St. Bessia ( 1 ;, July 2S, M. at Lao- 
dii-ra in Phrygia. AA.SS. 



122 



ST. BESSIA 



St. Bessia ( 2 ), YESTIXA. A martyr 
of Scillita. (See JANUAHIA (1).) 

B. Bessela, March 24. 12th cen 
tury. Abbess and founder of Wert. 
Wife of Folcold, count of Bern, near 
Bois lo Due, and Teisterband. His 
lands lay between the Meuse and the 
Waal, and included Hensdan, Altena, 
and the island of Bomnelaua. Once, in 
a battle, being hard beset by his enemies, 
lie leaped with his horse into the Meuse, 
vowing at the same moment that if he 
were saved he would build a monastery. 
His safety was ensured by the VIIKM.V 
MARY, who was seen sitting behind him 
on his horse. He fulfilled his vow in 
1134, with the consent of his wife, 
Bessela, and the bishop, by turning his 
castle of Bern into a monastery of the 
Premonstratensian Order. The Blessed 
Eobert, abbot of the Island of St. Mary, 
a house of the same order, sent him 
brothers for his new establishment, and 
set the Blessed Everard over them. Fol 
cold became a lay- brother in his own 
monastery, and lived there for fifteen 
years in great humility. Bessela also 
took the monastic habit, and became 
founder and first abbess of Wert, be 
tween the Meuse and the Waal, where 
she ruled over seventy Premonstratensian 
nuns. Folcold and Bessela died about 
1 i:&gt;3. AA.SS., Prseter. Le Paige, 
ID ill. Prsem. Ordinis. 

St. Beth, ELIZABETH OF REUTHE. 

St. Betilda, BATHILDE. 

St. Bettelina. Not later than 9th 
century. Worshipped at Croyland sup 
posed to have been a nun there. Stadler. 

St. Beuve, BOVA. 

St. Bevea, BAIIBEA. 

St. Bey, BEGA. 

St. Beya, BEGA (1), and VEY. 

St. Bez, BEGA (1). 

St. Bibiana, or YIVIANA, Dec. 2, 
V. M. 364. Patron of the city of 
Seville ; against epilepsy ; and of drinkers 
in Germany ; invoked against drunken 
ness and headache, apparently enabling 
her votaries to indulge their taste for 
strong drink with impunity. 

Represented (1) in her church in 
Rome, holding a dagger and a palm ; 
(2 ) holding a branch with little twigs on 
it ; (3) carrying bags. 



Daughter of SS. Flavianus and DA- 
FROSA. Sister of ST. DEMETKIA. Scourged 
to death at Rome, under Apronius, in 
the time of Julian the Apostate. Her 
body was ordered to be left for beasts to 
eat, but after two days it was taken at 
night by a pious Christian priest named 
John, and buried near the palace of 
Lucinius. A chapel was built over her 
grave on the restoration of peace to the 
Church. 

It is not unlikely that her martyrdom 
and that of her parents took place in the 
reign of Gallienus, just a century earlier. 
There was no organized persecution of 
the Church under Julian, although there 
are instances of such martyrdoms, either 
for private ends of the persecutors or on 
account of political action on the part 
of Christians. 

R.M. Butler, Lives. Lcygendario. 
Ribadeneyra. Vega. Villegas. Bede. 
Husenbeth. AA.SS., St,Pigmemu9 t March 
23. Baring-Gould, Lives, Dec. 2. 

St. Biblias, or BIBLIS, Juno 2. 3rd 
century. One of the martyrs of Lyons. 
She was one of the ten who, on being 
accused as Christians, denied their faith, 
and even accused the others of crimes, 
in order to screen themselves by appear 
ing not to belong to the same community. 
The apostates were treated with con 
tempt by the multitude, and were kept 
in prison with the other Christian con 
fessors until the Emperor s pleasure 
should be known regarding them. On 
the arrival of an order that the Christians 
should bo put to death, but that those 
who would renounce their errors should 
be set at liberty, the apostates were 
brought before the tribunal again. To 
the surprise of all, they declared them 
selves ashamed of their base denial of 
their faith, and ready to prove their 
repentance by enduring tortures and 
death. Biblias, as a Roman citizen, was 
beheaded. She was first tortured, and, 
when asked if the Christians sacrificed 
nnd ate their own children, she answered, 
" How can they eat their own children, 
when they are not even allowed to eat 
the blood of animals?" Baillet, Vie. 
(See BLAXDIXA.) 

St. Bicca, or NICAS, June 28, M in 
Africa. AA.SS. 



ST. BLANCHE 



L23 



St. Bienvenue, BKNVI:M:TA. 

St. Bilhild ( 1 i. BH. UK. IIII.I.K. 
HII.DIS, Bmm.n, llmmu), Bi.mm.n. 1-Yh. 
I -: with her husband, Oct. 28. 7th 
ury. A woman of high rank. Mar 
ried St. Faro, a nobleman at the court 
of Clothaire II., early in the 7th o-n- 
tnry. Faro and Bilhild served God to 
gether to tho best of their ability, until 
at lust hj found so many hindrances and 
distractions that they agreed to separate. 
Bilhild took the veil, and settled in a 
solitary place on one of their estates, 
supposed to be now Champiguy. Faro 
me ji monk, and, in G27, was inudo 
Bishop of Meaux. The devil, who is 
always watching to destroy the just, 
troubled him with memories of his wife. 
Ho sent three times to ask her to como 
and see him. At last she came ; but, lest 
she should expose the servant of God to 
tin- traps of Satan, she cut off all her 
hair, and put on ugly old clothes and a 
cilicium. He admired her courage, and, 
shuddering at tho sight of her, sent her 
away. She then became a nun under 
his sister, ST. FARA. Bucelinus. Mon- 
lulembort, Moines. Saussaye, Mart. Gal. 

St. Bilhild i 2), GUXTILD (1). 

St. Bilhild !.:&gt;, Nov. 27. 8th cen 
tury. Al-licss and widow. Born, to 
wards the cud of the 7th century, at 
Hochheim. Daughter of the noble Ibe- 
rim and Mechtrida. She was brought 
up at Wurtzburg, and married very 
Duke Hottau. When she was 
eighteen her husband was Jailed in 
battle, and her only child died. She 
built tho nunnery of Altmiiuster, or 
Antiquacella, at Maintz. She was christ- 
i by ln-r unch: Sigobert, bishop of 
that city, and ruled over a large com 
munity. The monastery was afterwards 
called Allas Domino*, "White Ladies," 
and M 1 until the end of tho 18th cen 
tury. II. r mum; is in tho German, 
K;h, and Hem -.lie-tine Martyrolo- 
bner. The liev. Baring-Gould gives 
her Lift from the Maintz Breviary. 
Molanns. Bucelinus. 

St. Bilhild I &gt;, or lii.miii.i). A nun 
whom St. Pra j.-ctus, bishop of Clermont, 

martyr, callc.l -a worthy servant 
lirist." ami hold in L iv:it veneration. 
Saussayu, Mart. (,nl., p. H J 1 . . 



St. Birgitta, BKIGID of Sweden. 

St. Birona, BKATA ( !). 

BlSSia of Alexandria, Jtilv L s. 
Riche. 

St. Bistamona, June 4. Sister of 
ST. DIBAMONA, and daughter of Si. 
SOPHIA all martyred in Egypt. Guerin 
supposes her to be tho same as Ei.ri-, 
or ESPEKANCE. (See FAITH, HOPE, 
and CHARITY.) AA.SS. Petits Bol- 
landistes. 

B. Bivia, companion of B. CATHEKIXE 
HoitiGiA, and one of tho first nuns of the 
Order of St. Ambrose ad Nemus. Helyot, 
Ord. Mou., iv. 9. 

St. Blaesilla, Jan. 22. f:r&gt;o. A 
disciple of St. Jerome. Her husband 
died seven months after their marriage. 
After Blaesilla s death, St. Jerome wrote 
letters of condolence to her mother, ST. 
PAULA, and her sister, ST. EUSTOCHIIM. 
Bollandus gives several extracts from his 
letters, setting forth her virtues and piety. 
Boll., AA.SS. 

Blanca (1), ALDA. 

Blanca ( - &gt;, BLANCHE. 

St. Blanche &lt; l ), Nov. no. c. 1187- 
125:5. Wife of Louis VIII., king of 
Franco 022.^-1220). Mother of St. 
Louis (IX. ) ( 122()-1270). Sho was the 
eldest of the eleven or twelve daughters 
of Alfonso IX., king of Castillo (1188- 
.1214). Three of her sisters were queens 
respectively of Portugal, Leon, and 
Arragon. Her mother was tho daughter 
of Henry II., king of England. Philip 
II., called " Augustus " and " tho Great," 
king of France ( 1 180-122:} ), desired, for 
political reasons, to make an alliance 
with England and with Spain by marrying 
his son Louis to tho daughter of the 
King of Castillo. John, king of England, 
also favoured tho project. Eleanor of 
Guienno had married, first, Louis VII. of 
France, from whom she was divorced ; 
and secondly, Henry II. of England. 
Sho was thus grandmother of Louis VIII. 
and of Blanche, and took great part in 
negotiating tho marriage. As soon as 
tho arr;m&lt;_ nieuts were concluded, she 
wnit to Castillo as ambassador for tho 
two kings, to propose for tho Princess 
1 dunchoand to fetch her. Tho marriage 
was celebrated, by proxy ( c. 1 2&lt;n &gt; ), at 
Burgos, with great magnificence. 



124: 



ST. BLANCHE 



Blanche s father and his court accom 
panied her to the frontier of Gascony, 
where Louis sent Matthew de Mont- 
morency to receive her. The marriage 
could not be solemnized at Paris, because 
the kingdom was under an interdict, on 
account of Philip s repudiation of his 
wife Ingibiorg, and his unlawful marriage 
to Agnes of Meran. Normandy, how 
ever, being the property of the bride s 
uncle, John, king of England, that 
monarch went to meet her and conducted 
her thither, and the wedding was cele 
brated at Parmoy by the Archbishop of 
Bonrges in presence of a brilliant 
assemblage of prelates and nobles of 
France and England. Louis " emmena 
sacJiere moicte" to Paris to the gay court 
of Philip Augustus, where the greater 
part of her married life was passed. 
The young couple were thirteen or 
fourteen years old, both amiable, inno 
cent, pious, and much alike in many 
ways, so that they became devotedly 
attached, and could not bear io lose sight 
of each other, and no couple were ever 
more united or more happy. Blanche 
was remarkable all her life for her noble 
qualities of heart and intellect. When 
she came to Franco her beauty and 
dignity won the hearts of all the French, 
and her conversation was so reasonable 
and so charming that it was impossible 
to refuse her anything. Her father-in- 
law admitted the value of her judgment, 
and was often guided by her advice ; her 
husband would not undertake the smallest 
thing without consulting her. The chief 
business of his short reign was the war 
with England. The French won back 
many of the places which were in the 
hands of the English, and would prob 
ably have driven them out of France had 
Louis not abandoned the struggle for the 
purpose of fighting the Albigenses. 
Blanche, who had a pious horror of 
heretics and infidels, gave some of her 
furniture and some valuable rings to 
contribute to the expense of a war which 
she considered sacred. She went with 
him to Languedoc, and lived for some 
time in the camp, to encourage the Catho 
lics. During this campaign a pestilence 
broke out in the French army ; among 
the immense number of victims was the 



king. He made the nobles swear alle" 
giance to his son Louis IX. the Saint, 
who was only eleven years old, and 
appointed Blanche to be regent until 
Louis should reach the age of twenty. 

The barons thought the reign of a 
child and the regency of a woman an 
excellent opportunity to recover the 
power and independence they had lost 
under Philip Augustus. They banded 
together against the queen-mother, but 
her firmness of character and political 
ability were more than a match for their 
arrogant pretensions. The most power 
ful of her opponents was Thibault, count 
of Champagne, afterwards king of Na 
varre, an accomplished knight, a brave 
soldier, and a poet, who had long been 
in love with Blanche, and having never 
received the smallest encouragement 
from her, now thought to punish her 
cruelty; but she put him to shame by 
her remonstrances, and he became her 
staunchest champion, and helped her to- 
overcome his former colleagues, so that 
her regency strengthened the authority 
of the crown and enriched it by prudent 
alliances. 

One of the notable events that occurred 
in Europe during her regency was the 
establishment, in 1229, of the Inquisi 
tion, which Professor Gustavo Masson 
characterizes as " the most formidable 
engine of ecclesiastical discipline the 
world has ever seen." 

Blanche took very great trouble and 
care in the education of her children. 
St. Louis grew up to be one of the best 
kings that ever reigned in any country, 
and one of the best men that ever lived 
in France. She said to the young king, 
" My son, I would rather see you dead 
than guilty of a mortal sin." She was 
regent for him a second time while he 
was absent at the sixth crusade (124!). 
She and all his wisest advisers dis 
approved of his expedition to Palestine. 
She favoured the clergy, both from piety 
and policy. Both she and her husband 
are revered by Franciscans as members 
of their Third Order. The two monas 
teries she built were Cistercian, namely, 
Maubuisson, at Pontoise, where -she is 
buried, and Le Lys, near Meluu, where 
her heart is buried. She helped her 



ST. BLAXDIXA 



125 



son to bring to Paris the holy crown of 
thorns, which ho got from the Turks. 
A festival was instituted in its honour, 
Aug. 1 1. (Gynecseum and GbfcJbuA. ) 

During his second expedition to the 
holy wars in the seventh crusade, Blanche 
died, on hearing that he had vowed to 
remain there. 

She had eleven children, several of 
whom died young. One was Charles, 
count of Anjou, who had Aujou and 
Maine from his father, Provence and 
Forcalquier from his wife, the kingdom 
of the Two Sicilies by his sword. He 
would also have had the empire of 
Greece, but for the jealousy of the Pope 
(Mezerayj. 

Of her two daughters, one died in 
infancy and the other was SAINTE ISA- 
IIKU.K DI: FRANCE. 

Mf/uray, Histoire de France. Dr. 
Brewer, History of France. Gustavo 
M;isson, Mcdiseval France. The con 
temporary accounts of the reign of Louis 
IX., and particularly of his expedition 
to the holy wars, in the collections of 
Bouquet, Bouchon, etc., are full of 
interest. Saussaye, Mart. GnU. Her 
/- / is to be given by the Bollandists 
when they come to her day. 

B. Blanche (2), April 2t). Daughter 
of Philip III. the Fair, king of Franco 
&lt; li&gt;.Y- 1:5 14). Worshipped in the con 
vent of Longchamps, near Paris, founded 
by her great-aunt, ST. ISABELLE DE 
FRANCE. AA.SS., Prseter , from the 
Fi" i in-/ si- in M&lt;irt. 

B. Blanche (3), Jan. 14. Abbess of 
Argensol, in Champagne (founded 1220). 
When it was revealed to her that Blanche, 
countess of Champagne, queen of Xavarre, 
and founder of her convent, must die 
and lose her soul, this saintly woman 
gave up her own life as the only con 
dition on which she could ransom that 
of her friend. JUicelinus, Mm. Sen. 

St. Blanda (1), May in, M. 222. 
Wife of St. Felix, M. Sho was paralytic 
and bedridden for four years. Felix, 
hearing of the miracles of the Christians, 
applied to Palmatias a consul newly 
converted to Christianity promising to 
adopt that religion if his wife were 
&lt;ur.il. Palmatius, who was a guest and 
prisoner in the house of Simplicius, 



threw himself on his knees and pr.iyo 1 
for the restoration of BlamLi to health. 
Before an hour had elapsed, Blanda run 
to the house, praising God, and begging 
to bo baptized with her husband. Pal 
matius then sent for St. Calixtus, the 
Pope, who baptized them and converted 
and baptized Simplicius, his wife and 
children, and about sixty-eight persons 
of his household. The Emperor Alex 
ander was very angry, and had all the 
new converts beheaded and their heads 
stuck on the different gates of Kerne, as 
a warning to Christians. I?.J/. Boll., 
AA.SS., who give the Acts " per notaries 
Romanes Couscripta." 

Blanda (2), May l;j, June 12; 
with St. Eleutherius, Feb. 20, V. &lt;&gt;th 
century. Raised to life, baptized and 
consecrated to God by St. Eleutherius, 
bishop of Tournay. Sho led a holy 
life, and her relics are honoured, with 
those of Eleutherius, in the cathedral of 
Tournay. Gallia Christiana, iii. 571. 
Henschenius, AA.SS., Feb. 20. 

St. Blandina, June 2, Y.M. f c. 177. 
One of the martyrs of Lyons. Patron 
of young girls. 

Represented ( 1 ) with a gridiron ; 
(2) tied to a stake or pillar, a lion, bear, 
or ox standing by. 

A sanguinary and indiscriminate per 
secution of tlio ( liristiaus occurred at 
Lyons and Yienne, in the reign of one 
of the best of men, as well as most 
tolerant of rulers, namely, Marcus Aure- 
lius Antoninus. These cruelties were 
carried on by the local authorities after 
the Emperor had ordered the suspension 
of the persecution. There is nothing in 
sacred history more authentic than the 
story of the Martyrs of Lyons. The 
circumstances are related in a letter 
from the surviving Christians of those 
Churches to those of Phrygia and Asia. 
This letter is supposed to bo written by 
St. Irenteus, coadjutor of St. Photinus, 
bishop of Lyons. Part of it is preserved 
in the Ecd&fattical Jlint&lt;n // of Eusebius, 
who says that ho has given it in full in 
his Book of Martyrs, which is lost. 
The letter says that u the faithful were 
dragged about the streets, imprisoned, 
stoned, and overwhelmed with outran 
Among the most distinguished of the 



120 



ST. BLANDIXA 



forty-nine martyrs was Vettius Epaga- 
thus, who, before he had be^n arrested 
or accused as a Christian, publicly re 
monstrated against the injustice of con 
demning them without evidence ; and 
undertook to prove that they were 
innocent of any crime. He was placed 
amongst the confessors, and it is probable 
that as a Roman citizen he was one of 
those eventually beheaded, like Attains, 
who, after being led into the amphi 
theatre to fight with beasts for the 
amusement of the populace, was re 
manded to prison for a time and suffered 
the more dignified penalty. Sanctus a 
deacon, and Maturus a neophyte, were 
killed by being roasted in hot iron 
chairs. The aged Bishop Photinus 
was one of several who died of the 
poisonous atmosphere of the prison, 
before any torture was inflicted on them. 
Ten of the accused apostatized ; among 
them ST. BIBLIAS. They were im 
prisoned with the rest, and treated with 
greater contempt on account of their 
cowardice. It happened that some of 
the Christians had heathen slaves who 
were arrested with them, and these, in 
their terror of being identified with the 
proscribed sect, accused them of the 
most horrible crimes. Meantime the con 
fessors would not allow any one to call 
them martyrs. By their intercession 
and example, they reclaimed many of 
the apostates. After some delay, while 
the Emperor s decision was awaited, 
these were re-examined, and were offered 
their liberty, on condition that they 
should positively renounce their religion, 
but, with the exception of those who had 
never been Christians at heart, and had 
led wicked lives, they only desired the 
privilege of suffering with their brethren, 
who now received them with open arms. 
Blandina was a slave, of such a delicate 
constitution and so little courage that 
her mistress, who was among the martyrs, 
feared she would bo wearied or terrified 
into apostasy. The executioners relieved 
each other in torturing her, from dawn 
iintil sunset, in order to induce her 
to accuse her mistress and the other 
Christians, as the heathen slaves had 
done. But she said, " I am a Christian ; 
crimes are not tolerated among us." 



After many kinds of torture had been 
tried upon her, she was bound to a stake 
to be devoured by the wild beasts that 
were driven into the arena. Hanging 
thus, as if on a cross, and praying 
earnestly, she greatly encouraged the 
other confessors, who saw in their sister 
an image of Him who was crucified for 
them. As none of the beasts would 
touch her, she was taken back to the 
prison. On the last day of the gladia 
torial games, she and Ponticus, a lad of 
fifteen, who seems to have been her 
brother, after they had witnessed the 
death of all their companions, were com 
manded to swear by the idols. Ponticus, 
encouraged by Blandina, refused, and 
was at once put to death. Blandina was 
scourged, torn by beasts, and made to 
sit in the burning chair, after which she 
was enveloped in a net and thrown down 
before a wild cow, which tossed her 
about and tore her limb from limb. 
The pagans admitted that none of their 
women could have endured such torments 
so bravely. The bodies of the saints 
were given to be eaten by dogs, and 
soldiers watched day and night to 
prevent any of them from being buried 
by their friends. Some tried in vain to 
bribe the guards to give up the bodies, 
but all that remained of the martyrs was 
burned and the ashes thrown into the 
Rhone. It was presumed that this would 
destroy the hope of their resurrection. 
The names of the martyrs who suffered 
at the same time as Blandina are judged 
to have been taken from the original 
account. Twelve men and twelve women 
were beheaded as Roman citizens. The 
women were SS. ALBINA, BIBLIAS or 
BIBLIS, ELPIS who is also called AMNKA 
or AMNIA, EMILIA, GRATA or AGRATA, 
JULIA, MATERNA, POMPEIA, POSTUMIANA 
or POTAMIA, MAIITA, RHODANA, ROGATA. 
Nine men and nine women died in prison ; 
the latter were SS. ALUMNA or DOMNA, 
ANTONIA, AUSONIA, EMILIA, JAMNICA or 
GAMNITE, JULIA, JUSTA, POMPEIA, and 
TiioriiiMA. Blandina was the only 
woman who was thrown to the beasts. 
Some of the Christians were brought 
from Vienne to Lyons to be tried and 
executed with their brethren there ; but 
they are generally all called * The 



ST. BOX A 



127 



Martyrs of Lyons ; " they are also called 
"Martyrs of Aisnai" supposed to bo 
the spot in Lyons where they were put 
to death. According to another theory, 
the site of their martyrdom was the 
amphitheatre on Mount Forviere. Blan- 
dina is generally considered the chief 
of these martyrs, and churches dedicated 
in honour of the forty-eight Martyrs of 
Lyons are often called by her name. 

/ t ..lf. AA.SS. Tillemont. Baillet. 
Butler. Th,- Epistle of the GaUim,, 
Church, s, translated by P&gt;indley(S.P.C.K.). 

St. Blata, or BLATHA, i.e. Flora, Jan. 
20, V. ST. BRIGID S cook, f c. :&gt;2:;. 
Colgan, Ii- txli Snintx, ii. &lt;&gt;2i&gt;, Appendix. 

St. Blath (1), an Irish V., Jan. 18, 
honoured with ST. SCOTH (2). 

St. Blath (2), BLATA. 

St. Blatta, April 22, V. Nun at 
Anastasiopolis, the capital of Ancyra. 
Sister of St. Theodore Syceota ("f (&gt;13), 
bishop of Anastasiopolis, archimandrite 
of the monasteries of Galatia. Boll., 
AA.SS., Praett,: 

St. Blictrude. Supposed to mean 
PLECTRUDK. 

St. Blida, May :i&lt;&gt;. llth century. 
Mother of St. Walstan. Wife of Bene 
dict, of a rich and influential family. They 
lived at Baber, afterwards called Baw- 
burgh, in Norfolk, where Walstan was 
born. He was ascetic and pious from 
his youth. He gave his own clothes and 
shoes to the poor, and became a farm- 
servant at Taverham, near Cossey. Ho 
died working in the field, May . 5&lt;&gt; 5 1016. 
All these places are within a few miles 
of Norwich. A well near Cossey still 
bears his name, and pilgrimages were 
made to ensure his intercession against 
fever, lameness, blindness, and palsy. 
I51ida is represented (1) as a saint, on 
the chancel window of North Tudden- 
hain Church ; (2) crowned, and holding 
a book and palm. This representation 
was formerly to bo seen on the rood- 
screen of St. James s, Norwich, and is 
now in private possession at Aylslmni. 
Husenbeth, EmlJ, /* of X /////*. IJutler, 
Liv&lt; 8. Capgrave, fol. : 

Blithildis &lt;&gt;r Blithilda, GKRB] 

St. Blittrude, PI.K m DB. 

St. Bogha, sister of SS. COLMA and 

\U.\. 



B. Bogna, June 1:;. llth century. 
One of the patrons of Poland. She and 
her husband were of the most illustrious 
families in Poland. They were childless 
for thirty years. In lO. Jn their son 
Stanislas Sezepanowski was born at 
Sc/epano\v, near Cracow. As bishop of 
that town, he was the only person who 
dared to reprove Boleslas II. the Cruel, 
for his licentious, tyrannical, and bar 
barous conduct. After repeated remon 
strances, ho excommunicated the king, 
who therefore murdered him, 1079. 
Stanislas and his mother are buried at 
Sezepanow. The Bollandists do not 
sanction her worship, but describe her 
virtues and those of her husband in the 
Life of their son St. Stanislas, May 7. 
Butler, Lives, "St. Stanislas." Bogna 
appears in the AA.SS. amongst the 
PseterwixKi, June l. J. 

St. Bologne, BHLMXIA. 

St. Bolonia, Oct. ll (in French, 
BOLOGNE or BOULOGNE), V. M. "f" c. 372 
or M2. Worshipped at Chaumont, 
Haute Marne. When she was very 
young her mother died, leaving her to 
the care of a ( Christian nurse. Her 
father, for fear of the Emperor, sent her 
away to live with the nurse. Bolonia 
tended the sheep. When she was fifteen 
Ptolemy, a general under Julian, tried 
to seduce her and then to marry her. 
He persecuted her in various ways, and 
after many tortures, ordered her to- 
sacrifice to the gods. She answered, " I 
sacrifice myself to the living God." Ho 
put her into a vessel full of water, with 
stones and fetters to ensure her being 
drowned. In this she was thrown from 
the top of the hill on which her father s 
castle stood, and arrived safe and well, 
shining with unearthly beauty and glory, 
on the bank of the river. Then her 
head was cut off, and she carried it in 
her hands across tlie river to bo burl- 1. 
She was not, as some have supposed, tho 
sister of SS. Gall and Bercharius. Bou 
logne, in Chaumont, is said to bo named 
after her. She is worshipped there with 
a special service of nine lessons and two 
collects, although she is not mentioned 
in the old nmrtyrologies. Boll., AA.SS., 
&lt; )ct. It . ; and Prxbr., July 1 7. 

St. Bona (1), Sept. 12 (CABJCUHDIOA, 



128 



ST. BOXA 



MI.NDICORDA), V. Supposed a nun in 
Egypt, in the 7th centur^. AA.SS., 
Prdettr. Worshipped at Treviso. Migue. 
Ferrarius. 

St. Bona (2), B..VA. 

St. Bona (:i), May 20, V. of Pisa. 
1156-1207. Represented carrying a 
pilgrim s staff and a short double-barred 
cross in her joined hands. She had 
three half-brothers, the Patriarch of 
Jerusalem, the Master of the Temple, 
and a Knight Hospitaller. From early 
youth she was under the direction of 
angels, and was the subject of visions. 
She led a life of great austerity, wearing 
a hair shirt and an iron belt under her 
clothes. Notwithstanding the opposition 
of her family, she went on pilgrimage to 
the Holy Land, and afterwards to Santiago 
de Compostella. During her journeyings 
she was attacked and wounded by robbers ; 
she crossed rivers dry-shod, and otherwise 
miraculously helped herself and others. 
After her return, she built a church at 
Pisa in honour of St. James of Com 
postella. She devoted herself to a 
religious life in the Order of Canons 
Eegular. She died in the odour of 
sanctity. She was buried in the church 
of St. Martin, at Pisa, followed to the 
grave by the archbishop and a great 
concourse of people. An altar was 
afterwards dedicated there in her name. 
She was never canonized, but was 
worshipped at Pisa. AA.SS. Cahier, 
Carac&rittiquei. Husenbeth, Emblems. 
The ring with which she was married to 
Christ and the table at which He supped 
with her were reverently preserved at 
two monasteries near Pisa. Lives of the 
Brethren. 

St. Bona (4), Aug. 5. t 12 ^. 
3rd O.S.F. St. Lucchese or Lucesio, 
and his wife St. Bona or BUONA DONNA, 
lived at St. Casciano, where several 
children were born to them. They 
afterwards removed to Poggibonsi. 
Lucchese took part with the Guelphs. 
He spent most of his substance in keep 
ing up his rank. He then sot about 
restoring his fortune by trade, and became 
a provision merchant. This trade brought 
him the temptation to wish for a famine 
for the sake of the profits he could make. 
He soon repented of his wicked desire, 



and, after the death of his children, he 
gave away all that he had, except a small 
sum with which he bought a little garden 
and maintained himself and his wife. 
He wished to join the Poor Friars, as 
the Brothers of St. Francis were called ; 
but not being able to do so, he prayed 
to be taught how to sanctify his soul in 
the world. He devoted himself to works 
of benevolence, begging from the rich 
for the sake of the poor, visiting the 
Maremma every summer, to minister to 
the wants of those who suffered from the 
heat and the unhealthy air, at the same 
time exhorting them to repentance and 
righteousness. At first Bona blamed 
his excessive charity, and feared he would 
leave her and himself in destitution. 
One day she was angry with him for 
giving away the last morsel of bread in 
the house. He answered that He who 
had multiplied the five loaves would be 
able to provide for them. Presently 
some beggars came to the door, and 
Lucchese told his wife to go to the cup 
board and get them something. She 
laughed, knowing the place was empty ; 
but he again bade her go. She went, 
and found a large supply of bread. 
From that time she always gave without 
stint, and when St. Francis came, preach 
ing poverty and charity, Bona was as 
ready as her husband to receive his 
instructions. 

Such was the compunction caused by 
the preaching of this great apostle, that 
numbers of people crowded into the 
monasteries, and thousands more were dis 
posed to follow, regarding the cloistered 
life as the only way of saving their souls. 
St. Francis discouraged this movement ; 
he told them they could not secure their 
salvation by burying themselves in the 
religious houses, and that many of them 
would serve God better by carrying on 
their ordinary business righteously and 
bringing up their children virtuously. 
It was for such as these that, in 12121, he 
instituted his Third Order. The rule 
was simple, and it was expressly declared 
that it did not oblige under pain of 
sin. Four things were required of the 
candidates: (1) restoration of all goods 
unjustly acquired ; (2) reconciliation 
with all adversaries : (:&gt;) observance of 



ST. BONOS A 



the commandments of God and the pre 
cepts of the Church and the Rule : i 4 ) 
in case of the reception of a murri&gt; ! 
woman, her husband s consent was neces 
sary. They wore a simple grey dress 
and the Franciscan cord ; they were not 
allowed to attend theatrical representa 
tions, dances, or revels. They were to 
regulate their worldly affairs and make 
their wills. Eventually the Third Order 
betook themselves to cloisters, throwing 
away what was perhaps the most bene 
ficial part of the system of their founder. 
Lucchose and Bona continued to be 
members of this order for nineteen 
years. At one time Lucchese appears to 
have lived alone in a hermitage, visiting 
Bona and assisting her in good works. 
Bona fell ill, and Lucchese, who was also 
ill, went to see her, and advised her to 
receive the Holy Communion. When 
she had done so, ho said, " My dear 
companion, God, who gave us grace to re 
nounce our property together, is going to 
grant us the favour of leaving the world 
together ; wait a little while until I have 
received the Holy Sacrament, and then 
we will go together to eternal happiness." 
He went back to his hermitage, sent for 
his confessor and the parish priest, and 
received with great devotion. He re 
turned in a state of extreme exhaustion 
to Bona, who died holding his hands. 
He was carried back to his hut, where 
he died with his eyes fixed on the crucifix, 
on April 2s, on which day ho is com 
memorated in the Franciscan Martyrohr/y. 
They were both buried in the Franciscan 
church at Poggibonsi, afterwards called 
San Lucchese. 

Brocchi, Sunti Fiorcnttni. Magliano, 
Hist. J nineincintn. Praycr-Jtook. Luc- 
cheso may mean a man of Lucca, and 
Buona Donna, a good woman, his wife. 

B. Bona (o) d Armagnac, Oct. 26. 
loth century. Clarissan nun in the 
convent of St. Anne of Lezignan, near 
BTarbonne. Daughter of the Count d Ar- 
ma^nac. Burn in answer to the prayers 
. COLKTTI:, who told the count and 
countess that their first child would bo 
;i laughter, and become a holy nun of 
h-r order, the K&lt; formed Order of St. 
Fr:u:-is al I.- /i^nan, and that they mu&gt;t 
not oppose her vocation. Accordingly, 



their eldest child became a nun of that 
order, and three years after her pro 
fession she died in the odour of sanctity, 
under the name of S&lt;EUU BONNE. Jumel, 
L .f&gt; of St. Coh ttf. AA.SS., Prsetcr. 

Sainte Bonde, SANTA BONDA. Cor 
ruption of St. Abundius, bishop of Como, 
who died 4(58. A convert of Santa 
Bonda is mentioned in the letters of St. 
Catherine of Siena. AA.SS., April 2. 
Helyot, Ilist. Ord. Non., iii. 

SS. Bonifacia. Four women of this 
name appear as martyrs in old calen 
dars. 

St. Bonita, Oct. in, V. Oth, 10th, 
or llth century. A goose-girl in the 
village of Alvier, in Auvergne. She 
had a great devotion to St. Julian. In 
answer to her fervent prayer, an angel 
took her across the river in time of flood, 
so that sho might worship at his tomb 
as usual. After this she led an angelic 
life. Tradition adds that she lived when 
the English were fighting in that part 
of Franco. AA.SS. 

B. Bonizella, May &gt;, widow, f 800. 
Her body is preserved entire in the 
church of Trequanda, in the dioceso of 
Siena, and her festival is kept there on 
the third Sunday in May. Her history 
is lost, and is believed to have been 
destroyed in a fire in 1 . 384. AA.SS. 
Bonne, Bona &lt; "&gt;). 
St. Bonosa (I ), in French VENEUSE, 
VEXOUSE, Feb. 2, July 15, a Roman 
V. M. 207, at Porto Romano, under 
Severus. The Leggenfario says that 
when sho was condemned to bo beaten, 
she was miraculously concealed from the 
eyes of her tormentors, although sho 
could feel their blows. She was then 
given into the care of a prefect, who was 
to convert her if ho could, and otherwise 
to kill her. When sho was again con 
demned to be scourged, the executioners 
were seized with ucuto pains in their 
arras, and found themselves unable to 
use the whips. Sho was kept many days 
in a dark prison, and finally beheaded. 
Fifty soldiers wero converted by her 
and put to death with her. They are 
honoured as martyrs. St. Bonosa is 
commemorated in the Uummi Murtyro- 
/".///, July !.", with her brother St. 
Eutropius, and sister ST. ZOZIMA, all 

K 



130 



ST. BOXOSA 



martyred at Porto "Romano. The Mur- 
tyrolo&lt;jii of St. J&lt; rom&lt;&gt; says \hat their 
sepulchre was venerated in Nisela, or /// 
insuld. The fragments of a magnificent 
stone were discovered at two different 
times, in 1837 and in 18,58, about a 
mile from the walls of Porto Romano, 
near the Capo due Rami, where the island 
begins. All the modern discoveries tend 
to establish the tradition that the three 
martyrs were buried here. Civilta Cat- 
tolicfi, seria vi. vol. 7, p. 481, Aug. 11, 
isilii. R.N., July 15. Boll., AA.SS. 
Leggendario delle Sante Veryini, Feb. 2. 

St. Bonosa (2), May 10, M. at 
Tarsus, in Cilicia. Boll., AA.SS. 

St. Bonosia, Feb. 2, M. at Rome, 
with Cappa and many others. Boll., 
AA.SS. 

St. Borema, BEATA (l;. 

St. Botild, or BOTHILDIS, July 28. 
"f 1102. Queen of Denmark. Daughter 
of Turgot, or Trugillus, a Swedish noble. 
Wife of Eric II. (Eycgodj, king of 
Denmark (10951102), stepson of ST. 
GUDA. Botild suffered her husband s 
infidelities meekly. He was beloved by 
his people for many noble qualities, but 
was liable to fits of fury, in one of which 
he killed some of his faithful servants. 
His repentance was deep, and after pay 
ing the blood fine, he could not quiet 
his conscience without making a pil 
grimage to Jerusalem to atone for the 
sin of murder. When his intention was 
known, his people besought him not to 
go, and offered a third of their property 
to pay for Masses, and to buy off the 
king s vow. He insisted on going, and 
Botild determined to accompany him. 
One of his illegitimate sons was ap 
pointed regent. Knud, the only son 
Botild had given to Eric, was left at 
home ; he grew up a great warrior, and 
was crowned King of the Obotrites by 
the Emperor Lothaire. The pilgrims 
went through Russia to Constantinople, 
and thence to Cyprus, where Eric was 
taken ill and died. -Botild proceeded on 
her pilgrimage, and died on the Mount 
of Olives, within sight of the gates of 
.Jerusalem, in 1 H&gt;2. Some historians 
place their death a year later. During 
their life, Eric s brother Knud, king of 
Denmark, was canonized. A^astovius, 



IV//8 Aquilonm. Saxo Grammaticus, 
7//.S-/. D/ni. Otto, tfnntdhitn-iii. Dalin. 
S/w/ Hil:t 8 Historifi. Mas Latrie, Tremor, 
Hamsfortii, Citron. Langebek, Scriptores 
Hcnun Uttiiii m-iiiii, i. 271. Dahlmanu, 
])&lt; in // ///,-. 

St. Boulogne, BOLONIA. 

St. Bourguine, BUHGUXDOFOKA. 

St. Bova, April 24, sometimes erro 
neously called BONA, in French BKUVE, 
V. Abbess at Rbeims. (&gt;th or 7th cen 
tury. Sister of St. Balderic, or Baudri, 
founder and abbot of Montfau&lt;;on, or 
Fauquemont, near Rheims. These saints 
are said to have been the children of a 
King Sigebert. If Mr. Baring-Gould is 
right in making him Sigebert I., who 
began to reign 5(51, their mother was the 
celebrated Queen Brunehaut, whose mar 
riage is said to be the first that was 
solemnized with a religious ceremony 
in France. Butler and Baillet say Bova 
was a great lady at the court of King 
Dagobert, and edified the court by 
her virtues until she was about thirty 
years old, when, about (W, she with 
drew to the monastery St. Balderic had 
built for her in a suburb of Rheims. 
Here she was soon joined by her niece, 
ST. DODA. Balderic went to stay with 
his sister and niece, and died in their 
nunnery. Bova did not long survive 
him. Doda succeeded her aunt as abbess, 
about (57:5. These saints are mentioned 
by Flodoard,in his history of the Church 
of Rheims ( 10th century). The original 
history of their lives was destroyed in a 
great fire. In the 10th century an 
anonymous author compiled another, 
with the help of the nuns who had often 
heard it read. Butler, Lives. Baillet, 
Vies. Hugo Menard, Mart. Ben. Baring- 
Gould, Liven, "St. Balderic," Oct. If,. 

St. Boylette, COLETTE BOILKT. 

St. Bozena, BKATIUCE (2). 

St. Breaca, Oct. 27, June 4 (Bin: \&lt;;i:, 
liiiKCA, BHKOCK, BIJH;, BUIGA, BKIGH ). 
."&gt;th or (&gt;th century. Possibly the same 
as BKIGA ( :&gt; ) or (4). Breaca joined or 
headed a band of Irish missionary 
settlers. Accompanied by her foster- 
son, King Germoe, SS. Fingar and 
I IAI.A, IA, IJriiiAN. CIJKWKNNA, and 
several others, she crossed over from 
Ireland to Cornwall, where they landed 



ST. BRKiA 



131 



in the Hayle estuary on the north coast. 
They were well received by King Theo 
dore. Breaca built several churches. 
&lt; ornish legend says she was a midwife, 
and the sister of St. Levin. Ho was a 
hermit at Bodellen, in Cornwall. He 
used to catch one fish every day for his 
own food. One evening, when he went 
fishing, he caught two bream on his 
hook. He took them both off, and threw 
them back into the sea ; the same two 
came again a second and a third time; 
he supposed thero was some reason for 
this double supply, and carried them 
both home; there ho found that his 
sister St. Breaca had come to visit him 
with her two children, who had had a 
long walk, and were very hungry. The 
fish were cooked for supper. The chil 
dren ate their portions eagerly, without 
waiting to pick out the bones, and both 
were choked. From that day the bream 
Las been called by the Cornish fisher 
men, chaJc-cheel (choke-child j ; some 
people say it was the chad, but the bream 
has very dangerous bones, and is more 
likely to have been tho fatal food. 
Nothing is known with any certainty 
about St. Levin, and some of the stories 
give him, instead of Breaca, a sister 
Manaccan. AA.SS. British Pi&gt; ty. A. 
Forster, Emjlish Di d &lt;c&lt;iti&lt;m8. Kev. S. 
Darin;.: (iniild, /&gt;Wi- of tin- West. Forbes. 
Hunt. 7Vy//&gt;/.//- lin,,,,nn L B of the West of 
England . . . Ti-&gt;lit &gt;ii8 of Old Cornwall. 
Smith ami Ware. 

Breenada, .July :;, V. ?th century. 
Irish. Commemorated with Tirechan, 
a disciple of Ultan. Boll., AA.SS., 
Prxter. 

St. Breeyith, 

St. Brega, BOA. 

St. Breock, 15i;i:\ \. 

St. Brettiva, Jan. 11 (Bmcnvl, 

BI.HIIIA. r.i;on.\\, I5i:vKKi;j. Supposed 
1" ho Irish, but worshipped chiefly in 
Norway ami Iceland. From tin- llth 
&lt; -utiiry her name appears thero in the 
Catal : saints days io he kept 

huly. llrotcva is still found as a name 
MI In-laii l. ami popularly understood to 
mean tin- guilty Kve. In tho Nor 
wegian calendars a horse is the sign f..r 
St. Urottiva s day. The word //&lt;//- 
to turn violently, to double up. 



A farmer drove out for hay on that day. 
Being warned that it was /&gt;/ &lt; // M 
he obstinately and profanely made a 
pun on her name, by answering, " Turn 
me this way, turn me that, I ll turn me 
home a load of hay." But his horse 
fell and broke its leg. Tho pictured 
horse, therefore, stands in tho calendar 
as a warning. The festival is also called 
Jirykki M&lt; 88&gt;r and 7&gt;/v//.-Ks- M-asn, from 
tho custom of the remnants of the Yule 
fare being stewed and eaten on that day. 
Keport xx. Antiquarian Society of Cam 
bridge. 

St. Brewo, WINIFRED. 

St. Bricheza, a mistake for ST. 

liICIIKXA. 

St. Brictiva, BKETTIVA. 

St. Bride, BIIIGID (2). 

St. Bridget, BKIGID. 

St. Brie, BKIGID ( 2 I. 

St. Brig, BIIKACA. 

St. Briga, or BKIGH. Briga is one 
of the names of ST. BHIGID, besides 
which there are several Brigas, called 
also Brigh. (I) A pious matron, 
daughter of Feargna, who assisted St. 
Patrick in his labours; (2) Brigh of 
Coirpre, Jan. 7, who is possibly the 
same as Briga ( 1 i. Smith and Wace. 
( ) llanlon. 

St. Briga (-5), or P&gt;KK;II, Feb. 1. 
Knd of ."&gt;th or beginning of o th century. 
An abbess in Leinster, contemporary 
and friend of ST. BKIGID (2). At one 
of her frequent visits to St. Briga s 
convent, when the nuns had washed the 
feet of their beloved guest, one of them, 
who had long lost the use of hers from 
gout, put them into the same water. 
I lei ore she had time to dry them, they 
wen- perfectly well. When Brigid, 
Iliiga, and tho nuns were at dinner, they 
noticed that Hrigid kept her eyes fixed 
MI one spot. They asked her the reason. 
She said she saw tho devil sitting there 
amongst them. At Briga s request she 
made the sign of tho cross on her eyes, 
and so enabled her to see him too. lie 
had an immense head, a black face, fiery 
. flaming breath, thick knees and 
ankles. Urigid asked him why he and 
his companions bore so fierce a hafred 
towards the human race. Ho answered, 
Ik-cause wo do not wish any one to 



132 



ST. BRIGA 



enjoy the glories of heaven, since we 
ourselves have lost all hope of entering 
there." " Ah ! " said the saint, " how 
different is my inclination ! If I could 
not go to heaven myself, I should wish 
to open to all others the gates that I 
knew to be shut against me." She then 
asked what business he had in a re 
ligious community. lie told her that 
he was harboured there by one of the 
nuns, who did his will rather than that 
of her ostensible Master. Brigid ascer 
tained from him the name of the nun, 
and then opened her eyes with the sign 
of the cross, that she might see what a 
hideous and cruel master she served. 
The nun, with tears, besought her 
prayers, and promised to amend her 
life. Brigid then banished the devil 
from amongst them, and the nun led a 
holy, penitential life, and was saved. 
Boll., AA.SS., in the fifth Life of St. 
Brigid. 

St. Briga (-4), Jan. 7, was the sister 
of St. Brendan, the navigator. After 
his seven years voyage, he founded the 
monasteries of Clonfert and Annadown, 
and set his sister over the latter, and 
there, in 577, he died in her arms, at 
the age of ninety-four. Smith and 
Wace. This Briga is thought to be the 
same as ST. BREACA, who settled in 
Cornwall, but it does not seem very 
likely that, when her brother had died 
at ninety-four, she could have been 
young enough to start on a missionary 
tour to another country. 

Briga (5), BREACA. 

Brighe, BRIGID (2). 

Brighite, BUIGID (2). 

St. Brigid (1), Feb. l, with Helen 
(4)^ Sapientia (2), cousins of ST. 
URSULA, and daughters of St. Kilian, 
one of the conductors of her campaign. 
AA.SS., Oct. 21. 

St. Brigid (2), Feb. 1, born about 
the middle of the 5th century, died in or 
before 525 (BREEYITH, BRIDE, BRIDGET, 
BRIGHIT, BRIGIDA, BRIID, BRITTA, BRYDE, 
BHYDOCK ; in France, BRIGITTE ; in Hol 
land, BRIE, BRIGHE ; the MARY of Ire 
land;, the "Fiery Dart." Patron of 
Ireland, Leinster, Kildare, of the family 
of Douglas, and of cattle and dairies. 
The dedications in her name arc very 



numerous in Ireland and on the western 
side of Great Britain. 

Represented (1) with flames playing 
round her head; (2) with a cow and a 
large bowl. 

The greatest of all the Irish saints, 
except St. Patrick. Founder of the 
first nunnery in Ireland, and chief over 
many monasteries for both sexes. Bishop 
Conlaeth, or Conlian, at the time head of 
the bishops and abbots, attended to the 
spiritual interests of her nuns and the 
services of her church. 

Montalembert says that Ireland was 
evangelized by two slaves, Patrick and 
Bridgid; that Brigid was twice sold, 
was flogged, insulted, and subjected to 
the hardest labour required of a female 
slave in those days ; she learnt mercy 
in the school of suffering and oppression ; 
she became a nun, but by no means a 
recluse ; she travelled all over Ireland, 
and had frequent and important inter 
course with all sorts and conditions of 
persons, but always in the interest of 
souls, or with a view to helping the 
unfortunate. She was honoured with 
the friendship and confidence of the 
holiest and most learned Irishmen of 
her time, among whom tradition places 
St. Ere, bishop of Slane, St. Mel of 
Ardagh, Cailaet, bishop of Kildare, St. 
Ailbe of Emly, St. Brendan of Clonfert, 
St. Gildas, who sent her a small bell 
cast by himself. St. Finnian was also 
her contemporary, and once preached 
before her and her nuns at Kildare. 
She is believed to have been contem 
porary with St. Patrick, although much 
younger. There is considerable un 
certainty as to her dates, and still more 
as to his. She died, upwards of seventy, 
in or before ."&gt; 2 ,"&gt;. In an old Life of St. 
Patrick, it is said that she fell asleep 
while he was preaching, and that he 
made her tell her dream, which he inter 
preted as referring to the future history 
of Ireland. One legend says that he 
taught her to piny on the harp, and that 
she embroidered a shroud for him at his 
own request, and took it to him at the 
monastery of Saball ; he then charged 
her to bless Ireland for thirty years 
after his death. 

Here are some of the countless tradi- 



ST. BRIGID 



133 



tions concerning St. Brigid. She was 
tli-- laughter of Dubtuch, a nobleman 
of Leinster, who \\ii-; &lt;lt scended from 
Eochard, brother of King Conn of the 
Hundred Battles; her mother was Broet- 
seach or Brocessa O Connor, his slave. 
Diihtnch s wife had several sons, but no 
daughter, and her jealousy of Brocessa 
was increased by the prophecy that Bro 
cessa would give birth to a daughter 
who should bo very illustrious. She 
insisted that Brocessa should bo sent 
away. So Dubtach sold her to a 
magician or bard at Faugher, near Dun- 
dalk, with the condition that her child 
should bo returned to him. The night 
that she arrived in her new home, a holy 
man came begging for hospitality. Ho 
I&gt;.i-sed the whole night in prayer, and in 
the morning told his host he had seen a 
globe of fire resting over the place where 
the servant slept. One day the bard 
invited his king and queen to supper, 
but the queen could not come because 
she was hourly expecting to have a 
child. The friends and servants of the 
king inquired of the bard what sort of 
child the queen would have, and when it 
would be born. Ho told them that it 
would have no equal in Ireland if it were 
born at sunrise, neither in the house nor 
out of the house. At midnight the 
qii -cn LMV. birth to a son. Very early 
in the morning, Brocessa went and milked 
the cows as usual. She returned with a 
large pail of milk. As she entered her 
master s door, having one foot in the 
house and one foot out, she fell down on 
the threshold, and there, at the moment 
of sunrise, she was delivered of a 
daughter, Brigid, whoso infancy was 
illustrated by prodigies, and who was 
evidently under the immediate protection 
of Heaven. Flames often filled her room 
01 surrounded her head, but did not 
hurt her or destroy anything. No food 
found to suit her until the magician 
set apart a beautiful white cow for her 
use, and got a Christian woman to milk 
it. According to agreement, the bard 
sent the child Urijid to her father. 
Once she went to help her mother, who 
was making butter and taking care of 
the cows some distance from her master s 
house. As fast as the butter was made, 



Brigid, who said, ** Every guest is 
Christ," gave it all away to beggars and 
travellers. After a time the magician 
and his wife came to the farm to fetch 
the butter. When Brigid saw what a 
largo cask they had brought to carry it 
away in, she was much embarrassed, 
knowing she had only the supply of one 
day and a half; however, she received 
them cheerfully, washed their feet, and 
gave them food. She then went to her 
own cell and prayed, and afterwards 
brought the butter she had to the bard s 
wife, who laughed at her and said, "Is 
that all the butter you have made in so 
many days?" Brigid said, "Fill the 
cask : you shall have butter enough." 
The woman began putting the butter 
into her large receptacle out of Brigid s 
little one, and very soon it was quite 
full. When the magician saw that 
miracle, ho said to Brigid, " You shall 
have all the butter for yourself, and the 
twelve cows which you have milked 
shall be yours also." Brigid said, 
" Keep your cows, and give me my 
mother s freedom." The magician an 
swered, " The cows and the butter and 
your mother are yours." Then he be 
lieved in Christ and was baptized, and 
Brigid gave all his gifts to the poor, and 
returned to Dubtach with her mother. 
Her father offered to sell her to the 
king, saying that he wished to get rid of 
her because she gave to the poor every 
thing she could lay her hands upon. 
While they were in the house discussing 
the matter, Brigid was left in the carriage 
at the door. A beggar asked her for 
alms, and as she had no money she gave 
him her father s sword, which was a gift 
from the king. When ho came back, 
she said that what she gave to the poor 
she gave to Christ, that her father and 
the king ought to bo glad that the sword 
was so honoured, and that if she could, 
she would give them both, and every 
thing that belonged to them, to Christ. 
The king then gave her a new sword for 
her father. 

Some Christians, travelling through 
the country, wore taken by Dubtach s 
followers. As they could not give a 
satisfactory account of themselves, they 
were condemned to death as rogues and 



134 



ST. BRIGID 



spies. Brigid said they were jninstrels, 
and bade them play on her harp. " Alas," 
said the strangers, " we have never learnt 
music." " Fear not," replied Brigid, 
" play." And she blessed their hands, 
laying her own upon them ; whereupon 
the strangers played and sang more 
beautifully than any minstrels that had 
ever been heard in that hall. 

When she was sixteen, her wisdom 
and beauty were praised throughout the 
land. Her father, who had no other 
daughter, wished her to make an advan 
tageous marriage; but Brigid, being 
determined to consecrate her life to the 
service of God and to works of mercy, 
prayed that some deformity might come 
upon her to deliver her from liability to 
marriage. Immediately one of her eyes 
burst in her head, thus destroying all 
her beauty. Dubtach then permitted 
her to take the veil. As she knelt to 
receive it, the wood of the altar became 
green at her touch, and for years after 
wards effected miraculous cures. At the 
same time, her lost eye was restored, and 
a pillar of fire appeared above her head. 
Her enthusiasm soon led other women 
to join her. At first they lived together 
at Kilbrighde, or Kilbude, near the sea. 
There are many places of this name in 
Ireland, but this is supposed to be the 
one in the county Waterford. After a 
time, Brigid built herself a cell under a 
goodly oak, and added a church and 
other buildings for her nuns. This was 
Kildare, Kil Dara, the cell or chapel of 
the oak. There were already communi 
ties of men, and there were churches and 
Christian schools, but this was the first 
convent of women in Ireland. The 
dwellings of the nuns were probably a 
number of huts or cells close to the 
church. The church was divided into 
three parts, one for monks, one for nuns, 
and one for the people. 

Brigid always showed a deep and 
tender sympathy for slaves and captives, 
whose troubles she knew by experience. 
Once she went to ask for the liberty of 
a captive ; the master was absent, but she 
made friends with his foster-father and 
brothers by teaching them to play the 
harp, and had already a strong party in 
her favour when the chief came home. 



Charmed by her musio, he begged her 
blessing, which was granted on con 
dition of his setting his prisoner at 
liberty. 

She took a great interest in young 
persons, and delighted to encourage them 
in virtue and piety. One day, as she 
was standing outside the monastery with 
some of her nuns, she saw a young man, 
named Nennidh, running very fast, 
" Bring that youth to me," commanded 
the abbess. He came with apparent 
reluctance. " Whither so fast ? " asked 
Brigid. Nennidh answered, with a 
laugh, that he was running to the king 
dom of heaven. "I wish," said Brigid, 
" that I were worthy to run there with 
you to-day. Pray for me, that I may 
arrive there." The young man, touched 
by her words, begged her to pray for 
him, and resolved to embrace a religious 
life. Brigid then foretold that he was- 
the person from whom she should receive 
the holy viaticum on the day of her 
death. He took great pains to keep his 
hand worthy of so great an honour, and 
was called Nennidh, the clean-handed. 
He wrote a hymn in honour of St. Brigid, 
preserved in Colgan s Acts of the Saints, 
Jan. 1-8. He is numbered among the 
saints, but is not the great St. Nonnidh, 
surnamed Laobh-deare, the one-eyed, or 
squinting. 

Many of the stories of the life of St. 
Brigid relate to the journeys and excur 
sions she used to make in her carriage. 
On one of these journeys she saw a poor 
family carrying heavy burdens of wood, 
and with her usual kindness gave them 
her horses. She and her sisters sat 
down by the wayside, and she told them 
to dig there for water. As soon as they 
did so, a fountain sprang from the earth, 
and presently a chieftain passed by and 
gave his horses to Brigid. 

Another time she happened to be alone 
in a friend s house when some persons- 
came begging for bread. She looked 
about for any of the household, but could 
see no one except a boy lying on the 
ground. He was deaf and paralytic, but 
Brigid did not know it. She said to 
him, " Boy, thou knowest where the keys 
are ? " He said, " Yes, I know." Tho 
holy woman then told him to go and 



ST. BRIGID 



185 



serve these poor persons, which he did, 
and had his faculties ever after. 

In a time of famine she went with 
gome of her nuns and asked for provisions 
from Bishop Ybar. He had no bread, 
so lie set before her a stone with some 
lard. The stone became bread, and 
Bri.irid ;md the bishop wore satisfied to 
make a meal of it, but two of the virgins, 
li siring to eat flesh, hid it, and they 
found it turned into serpents. Brigid 
rebuked them, and on their repentance 
the serpents again became bread. 

She had power over wild beasts. Once 
when a wolf had killed a sheep-dog, she 
made him take the place of his victim, 
and drive the sheep without frightening 
them. 

Cows, calves, milk, and butter figure 
largely in the legends of this saint. A 
number of strangers arrived at her home, 
and as she had nothing to give them but 
what she could get from one cow, she 
milked it three times, and it gave as 
much as three cows. It is in allusion to 
this legend that she appears in some 
pictures holding a large bowl. 

She seems to have shown severity or 
inflicted punishment only when the 
objects of her anger were guilty of un- 
kindness. For instance, when a woman 
refused to wash a leper whom Brigid 
intended to heal, she transferred the 
leprosy to the unkind one, but afterwards 
] rayed for her, and thereby healed her. 
day two lepers came begging, and 
she gave them a calf One of them said 
li&lt;- d id not want half a calf, and did 
not care to have it unless ho might 
have it all to himself. Brigid bado 
him take the animal, and said to the 
other, Wait with mo a little while, 
ami sic if (iod will send you anything 
to make up for your share of the calf." 
She procured another calf for him, and 
he went and overtook the ungrateful 
1&lt; i" r. They so. ni came to a great river, 
and the good leper and his calf arrived 
iy at the other side, but the thankless 
one and his calf were washed away and 
drowned. 

Her hospitality and charity were un- 
bounde.l. The lame of her holiness, her 
niirael. s. and her prophetic powers 61- 
d to Scotland. It is said that Ki 



Xectan, being driven out of Scotland, 
went to Ireland, and there visited Brigid, 
and asked for her prayers. She promised 
that if he went back to his own country 
(iod would have mercy upon him, and he 
should possess the kingdom of the Picts 
in peace. 

She was upwards of seventy when she 
died. She was buried at Kildare, and 
translated to Downpatrick, where she was 
laid beside St. Patrick and St. Columba. 
It is a mistake to identify her with 
ST. BRIGID OF GLASTONBURY or ST. 
BRIGID OP ABEKNETHY. Several other 
saints of the same name, contemporary 
with her, or nearly so, are mentioned by 
Colgan. She is honoured in many places 
and calendars on the Continent, but is 
perhaps not so universally known there 
as ST. BKIGID OF SWEDEN. 

After her death, the sacred fire, which 
she had kept perpetually burning, and 
which caused the church of Kildare to 
be called the house of tire, was kept up 
on her tomb until I J Jn, when sundry 
accusations of superstition and heathen 
ism having arisen against the custom, 
Henry London, archbishop of Dublin, 
ordered it to bo put out to avert scandal. 
It was relighted and kept burning until 
the time of Henry VIII., when the nuns 
were banished from Kildare, their goods 
confiscated, and the churches desecrated. 
Her Life was written immediately 
after her death by Brogan (called also 
Cloen). Another biography of her was 
written in the same century, another in 
the following, and so on. Five Lives 
are given in the Bollandist collection. 
li.M Bede, Mart. Colgan, Al.&gt;v 
Jlihi i-niic. Forbes, Kalendars. Monta- 
lembert, M&gt;nk8 of the West. Butler. 
Cahier. 

For other stories of St. Brigid, see 
UIMCA i ) ), DAKDITLAGHA, HINNA, LASREA. 
St. Brigid ( ^ ) of Abernothy. Bishop 
Forbes, ScotM Cdlcndurs, thinks it is 
probable there was a Scotch saint oi the 
name of Brigid, whoso relics were kept 
at Abernethy. The Aberdeen lln-viary, 
in the story of ST. M A/...TA, says that St. 
UriL id of Aberuethy was cousin of (ira- 
venlus, king of the Picts, who during 
his wars with the liritons was admon 
ished by supernatural means to send to 



136 



ST. BRICM) 



Ireland for Brigid, and ffllow her 
advice. She came with St. Mazota and 
eight holy virgins, and settled at Aber- 
nethy, and there built a church, where 
the king was baptized. 

St. Brigid (4) of Benchor, whose 
head, in 1 22:&gt;, was brought from Scotland 
or Ireland to Denis, king of Portugal, 
and kept at Lumiar with great venera 
tion, is said to have founded a great 
monastery at Benchor. This may have 
been Banchory in Scotland, or Bangor 
in Wales, or some place in Ireland. 
Bollandus could not identify her with 
either of the well-known SS. Brigid. 
Perhaps she is ST. BRIGID OF ABEII- 

NETHY. 

St. Brigid (5-11). Colgan, in his 
History of tlie Irish Saints, speaks of 
twenty-five Brigids, some of whom are 
distinguishable from each other, and 
some are not. No one but a Celtic 
scholar and antiquary could attempt to 
disentangle them all, or form an opinion 
as to how many Brigids there were, or 
which is a duplicate of which. I take 
these seven who are possibly reducible 
to four from Bishop Forbes article 
" Brigida," in Smith and Wace s Diet. 

St. Brigid (f&gt;), March 9, of Moin- 
miolain. (Perhaps same as 6.) 

St. Brigid (6), Sept. 30. Great- 
granddaughter of Colla or Colladius, 
who gave land to St. Patrick. 

St. Brigid (7), May 13, 24, nursed 
and converted her infirm husband : after 
his death she returned to her father s 
house, and built herself a cell. 

St. Brigid (S; of Oughterard, co. 
Kildare. (Perhaps same as 7.) 

St. Brigid O J of Senboith, or Shaubo, 
in Wexford. (Perhaps same as 7.) 

St. Brigid (10), March (5. Daughter 
of Lenin, one of several saints descended 
from the family of St. Foillan. One of 
six sisters to whom is dedicated the 
" church of the Sisters," at Kill-uaning- 
hean, in the district of Ui-Brivin. 

St. Brigid ( 1 1 ), sister of St. Sedna, 
abbot of Killaine, and of SS. GOUHA 
and LASSAKA, all descended from Ere, 
the ancestor of the kings of Albanian 
Scotia. 

St. Brigid (12) Mactail. Oth 
century. Daughter of Conchraid, of the 



family of Mactail. She had her cell at 
Cluan-in-fidi, on the banks of the Shan 
non. She made a vestment which she 
wished to send to Inniscathy for St. 
Senan, who was settled there not earlier 
than ,~&gt;:&gt;4. Finding no better mode of 
sending it, she wrapped it in hay and 
put it in a basket, which she addressed 
and set afloat on the river. It is said to 
have arrived safely. This anecdote is 
related of ST. BKIGID OF KILDAIIE, who 
sent her basket, however, by sea, and a 
much greater distance. Lanigan, Ecclcs. 
Hist, of Ireland, i. 44 .. 

St. Brigid ( 1 :&gt; J, March 1 4. An Irish 
virgin, brought up at Dunkeld with St. 
Cuthbert, by St. Columba. Bishop 
Forbes, Scot. CaL 

St. Brigid (14), or BIUTTA, Jan. 14. 
8th century. Of Beauvais : also called of 
Tours and of Nogent ; with her sister 
ST. MAURA, July 13, MM. of virginity. 
Daughters of the King of the Scots. They 
were born in 731, on the day that a long 
and desolating famine and pestilence 
came to an end. Their mother died in 
giving them birth. Maura devoted her 
life to fasting and prayer. Brigid 
devoted hers to works of mercy. Con 
trary to their wishes, the king sought 
advantageous alliances for them. While 
he was taking measures to bring them to 
his way of thinking, he died. They were 
now heirs of the kingdom, as their only 
brother Hispadius was feeble of body 
and unfit to succeed his father. They 
renounced their right to the throne, took 
their brother with them, and went to 
Piome. After they had visited the holy 
places, they cast a devil out of Ursinus 
their host, who thenceforth became their 
devoted servant. They next went to the 
territory of Beauvais, where they settled 
at Balagny, near Creil. Here they were 
attacked by four ruffians, and suffered 
much in their own defence. At last the 
robbers killed them and their brother, 
and Ursinus buried them. After many 
years, ST. BATHILDE, queen of France, 
had them translated to her new monastery 
of Chelles. Colgan, Irish Saints, Jan. 
14. French Mart., July 13. Guerin, 
Pet Its Soli. (Cf. MAURA. The difier- 
enco in dates tends to the conclusion 
that the legends are fictitious.) 



ST. IIRIGID 



187 



St. Brigid &lt; 15). Dee. 31, Fab. I. l . th 

century. Irish. Her brother St. Andrew 
left liis country to go on a pilgrimage. 
When he said farewell to her, ho advised 
her to dedicate her life to God. She did 
so. Many years passed, and she had long 
ceased to expect news of her brother, 
when, about the year 84o t sho was sitting 
at homo preparing her frugal fare, when 
an uugol appeared and carried her off to 
Fiesole, near Florence. There she found 
herself in the presence of St. Andrew, 
who lay on his death-bed, surrounded by 
his sorrowing monks. He had been for 
years Archdeacon of Fiesole, under its 
Irish seventh bishop, St. Donatus, and 
had restored the monastery of St. Martin. 
Donatus was lately dead. Andrew was 
ill of fever, and felt that ho had not 
many days to live. He greatly longed 
to see his sister Brigid before he died, 
and in answer to his strong wish, she 
had been miraculously brought to him. 
Sliu thought she was dreaming, and was 
as much amazed and bewildered as the 
monks were to see her arrive in their 
midst. Andrew said, " Brigid, my be 
loved sister, I have longed to see thee 
before I die, and because of the great 
distance that lay between us I feared 
my desire would not be granted. I 
trust that here where I have lived, thou, 
as a solitary and penitent, wilt dwell, 
and by thy prayers and virtues till up the 
measure of my shortcomings. Cease 
from thy amazement, and pray for me 
with all thy soul, for my last hour is at 
hand, and my summons has come." 
Then Brigid awoke as from a dream, and 
wept both for joy and grief; she grieved 
to lose him again so soon, but exulted 
that he had resisted temptations and 
overcome the evil one. She promised 
that all the days of life that remained to 
her should be dedicated to carrying out 
his will, and that she would stay in the 
country of his adoption and walk in his 
footsteps as far as her weakness allowed. 
Then brilliant lights and sweet odours 
announced the ascent of the soul of 
Andrew, and all the people came and 
:;it il their dead saint. Brigid left 
the monastery and s ttl. -.1 noar the source 
&gt;f the Sioci. hijh up in tho Val d Arno, 
where she founded a church in honour 



of St. Martin of Tours. After some 
years she wont further up the mountain 
to a more secluded place in tho thick 
woods. Hero she found a cave, where 
she led a solitary life of penanco and 
prayer, and there she lived to a groat 
age. The cave is still shown under 
neath the church of the Madonna del 
Sasso, high up among the Apennines, 
about two miles from Lobaco. In 870 
the inhabitants built a church on the 
site of her hermitage, and called it 
Santa Brigida. Boll., AA.SS. Lanigau. 
Stokes, Six Months in the Apennines. 

St. Brigid (H&gt;), or BIRGITTA, Feb. 
1, V. Sister of St. Henry, Emperor 
( 1 1 (2-1024). Abbess of a monastery at 
Regensburg, founded by St. Wolfgang. 
She is worshipped by the Benedictines 
only. AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Brigid (17) of Glastonbury, a 
recluse at Glastonbury, whose necklace 
and other relics were shown there in 
the time of William of Malmesbury 
(llth century), and were supposed to 
have belonged to ST. BHIGID of Ireland. 
Later critics and investigators say this 
was another saint, whoso memory is 
swallowed up in the fame of her great 
namesake. 

St. Brigid (18), March 0. 13th 
century. Franciscan nun, seen by her 
contemporary, ST. AGNES OF BOHEMIA, 
among the angels in glory. AA.SS. 

St. Brigid ( l i&gt; ) of Sweden, July 2:*, 
Oct. s. i:in2 or KK)4-i;J7;J. Commonly 
called BKIGHITE, BHIGIDA or BIUGITTE, 
BBITTA or BRITA, but her proper name 
was BIUGITTA. Dr. Dollinger calls her 
" one of the great visionaries of tho 1 4th 
century." Founder and patron of the 
Order of the Saviour of the World, or 
Brigittines, and of the monastery of 
Wadstein, tho first of that order. 

Represented (1) holding in her hand 
a heart surmounted by a crucifix, to 
indicate her devotion to tho Passion ; 
(2) standing before a cross, holding a 
candle, in allusion to her custom not to 
let Friday pass without undergoing some 
suffering in honour of Christ : if no 
other opportunity for suffering occurred, 
she dropped burning wax on her flesh ; 
(:J) stigmata in tho air near her, to 
denote revelations which she had on the 



138 



ST. BRIGID 



subject ; (4) writing in a bool^ an angel 
dictating to her. 

In the Norwegian calendars of the 
i:&gt;th century a house is the emblem of 
her day, in allusion to the monastery 
she founded ; sometimes the day is 
marked, instead, by two heather-bushes, 
because on this day, Oct. 8, the bear is 
supposed to begin to prepare his lair for 
the winter by gathering ling. 

Brigid was daughter of Birger Person 
Brahe, a devout warrior, who fought 
against the Russians and made a pilgrim 
age to Jerusalem. Her mother was 
Ingeborg, of the great family of Fol- 
kunga, who gave Sweden her first kings. 
Shortly before the birth of Brigid, her 
mother was at sea in a frightful storm 
when many persons were drowned. The 
following night she was told in a dream 
that she was saved from shipwreck on 
account of the predestined sanctity of 
her unborn daughter. She died soon 
after the birth of her child. Brigid was 
three years old before she began to 
speak, and then she surprised her family 
by uttering quite distinctly words of 
prayer and praise. Sometimes she got 
up to pray while the other girls in her 
room were asleep. On one of these 
occasions the aunt, who had charge of 
them, quietly fetched a cane to whip her. 
She no sooner held it over the back of 
the young saint than it fell into small 
pieces. At thirteen she married Fulk 
or Wulf, prince or layman of Nericia, 
who was eighteen. They joined the 
Third Order of St. Francis, and passed 
the-jfirsi- year of their married life in 
holy. virginity. They devoted much of 
their property, time, and energy to works 
of religion and charity, turning their 
house into a sort of hospital, where they 
tended the sick. About 1 :-J4rt they took 
their eight children on a pilgrimage to 
St. James of Compostella, in Spain. On 
their return journey, AVulf was taken ill 
at Arras. He received the last sacra 
ments, but Brigid continued to pray for 
his recovery. St. Denis appeared to her 
in a dream, and foretold many events ; 
and as a pledge of their truth, said that 
Wulf should recover immediately ; which 
he did. Whenjthey reached Sweden he 
retired, with Brigid s approbation, into 



the Cistercian monastery of Alvastro, 
where he very soon died. From that 
time she led a life of austerity and 
devotion, eating with the poor in the 
hospitals, and begging with them about 
the streets, denying herself the use of 
linen, and wearing a cilicium. 

It was about KJ44, soon after the 
death of her husband, that she founded 
the monastery of Wadstein, on the 
beautiful shore of Lake Wettern, in the 
diocese of Lincopen. It was the first i 
house of her Order of the Saviour of the 
World, since called that of the Brigittines. \ 
It was a branch of the Order of St. 
Augustine, and was instituted expressly 
for women ; men were never to be admitted, 
except to minister to the spiritual wants 
of the nuns; the abbess ruled over the 
monks in all temporal matters. The 
rule she gave contains the most minute 
directions, not only for the conduct of 
the members of the order, but concerning 
their dress and the furniture of the house 
and church. The number of nuns in 
each monastery was fixed at sixty, that 
of the priests at thirteen, in honour of 
the twelve apostles and St. Paul. There 
were to be eight lay brothers and four 
deacons, representing the four doctors 
of the Church (SS. Jerome, Ambrose, 
Augustine, and Gregory) ; in all, eighty- 
five, the number of the thirteen apostles 
and seventy-two disciples of Christ. 

While she was protesting against tho 
wickedness of the time, against the 
abuses in the Church, and the conduct 
of her cousin, King Magnus Srnek, and 
prophesying that God s judgments would 
fall upon the land, the Black Death 
came from England in a ship. Before 
the ship was unloaded, every man who- 
had come in it was dead, and the con 
tagion had made many other victims. 
It spread over the country, and killed a 
third of the population, laying waste 
whole districts, so that many churches 
were unused and forgotten, and in the 
next generation people discovered them 
in unsuspected places, where the woods 
had grown up around them and hidden 
them. 

St. Brigid never took the veil, because 
the rule of the order would have pre 
vented the pilgrimages she believed God 



SS. BRITTA AND MAT MA 



139 



required her to make. She went to 
Rome, and obtained the confirmation of 
her order by Urban V. in i:*7&lt;&gt;. After 
visiting Naples and Sicily, she was in 
spired to go to Jerusalem, although, 
being in her seventieth year, she had 
some misgivings about her infirmities. 
Her son Charles, father of the younger 

Si. UKKJID "K S\VK1)K\, Set Off With llCT, 

but (lied at an early stage of the journey. 
She was comforted by a revelation of 
his having entered into eternal bliss. 
Her daughter, St. Catherine of Sweden, 
and her son Birger, went with her to 
Jerusalem. She was taken ill on the 
return journey, and died in l:57. i, soon 
after her arrival in Rome. 

It is recorded that she was never 
known to be angry or jealous. She 
caused the Scriptures to bo translated 
into her native language. 

She had four sous and four daughters, 
one of whom was Abbess of Wadstein ; 
another daughter, Mareta, was tho 
mother of Ingrid, abbess of Wadstein. 
There is extant a volume of tho ll&gt;r&gt;- 
Itittitii* &lt;/ St. Br/ tjid, presented by her 
dau.u hti-r St. Catherine to Pope Gregory 
XI., who commissioned three learned 
cardinals to examine them ; they found 
in tin in nothing contrary to the Catholic 
faith. Her denunciations of the abuses rf 
of the time in high places were some- f 
what like those of St. Hildegard, but I 
much more explicit. A coarse sort of) 
guipure lace, made in Sweden, is said 
to have been introduced by St. Brigid, 
who learned the art on her pilgrimages, 
and taught it to her nuns. 

The tomb of Brigid s father and 
mother is still shown in the cathedral 
of Upsala. Their recumbent statues lie 
on a slab, a lion at his feet and a dog 
at hers ; their seven children are repre 
sented on tho border of the tomb. Two 
beets of her handwriting are shown in 
the Library at Stockholm. 

11 r canonization was begun by Boni- 
fuc- I X.. and was completed by Martin V., 
in I ll&lt;&gt;. 

/. ..I/., Oct. 8. Fant and Annerstedt, 
/, im Stu cicarum, iii. Hclyot, Hint. 
Oi-il. M,,,.. part iii. chap. -J. Bull. r. 
Bailht. .M ^M^uy. Duffy. Mrs. Jame 
son. (Jeijar, // . / ftpftA //, i. L". &lt;i 5 etc. 



Karamsin, 7 fist. &lt;!&lt; Rnssir, iv. :&gt;LV 
Report of tho Cambridge Antiquarian 
Society, Oct., 1H7H. A very interesting 
book, Tin- ..")//&gt;/"// &lt;&gt;f ""/ A / /.y, edited 
for tho Early English Text Society, by 
Miss Toulmin Smith, and written for 
the monastery of St. Saviour and St. 
Brigid at Isleworth, near Twickenham, 
gives some particulars of her life, and 
an account of the establishment, in 140&gt;, 
of this first Brigittine monastery in 
England. Paul du Chaillu, Land of the 
Miiiniijlit Sun, ii. p. :J:J:&gt;, etc., gives a 
charming description of the country 
where Wadstein is situated, and some- 
legends collected from tho people of the 
district. 

St. Brigid (20) the Younger, of 
Sweden, V. f 1:*IW. Granddaughter 
of ST. BHIGID OF SWEDEN, being the 
daughter of her son Charles, who died 
on pilgrimage. The younger Brigid 
was brought up in the convent of Vreta, 
on the Wettern Lake. When she was 
seven, her grandmother appeared to her 
and predicted her death. She made her 
last confession, and, although it was 
January, she begged persistently for 
strawberries, and, by a revelation from 
St. Brigid, some were found under the 
snow, on a hill near tho convent. She 
was buried at her grandmother s mon 
astery of Wadstein. Vastovius, Viti 



B. Brigid ( 21 ) of Holland. :;rd 
O.S.D. Supposed 14th century. She 
was so full of love to God that He 
adorned her with tho stigmata. Pio, 
Uomiiii &lt; tl"nn&lt;; p. ."&gt;ni;. Choquet, Smicti 
ll I /i, O.S.D., chap. xxv. 

Brigidona and Mary, Muy r., MM. 
AA.SS., Prseter. MS. Calendar of Tam- 
laght. 

St. Briid, BHIGID (2). 

B. Briolaya, Oct. 28, V. t c. 1500. 
Cistercian nun at Ebora, in Portugal. 
Remarkable for silence. She is praised 
by several hagiologists, but has no- 
authorized worship. Arturus calls h-r 
" Saint." Bucelinus calls her " Jilessed." 
Boll., AA.SS., Preeter. 

St. Brita, BHICH. ( i 

St. Brites, BKATKK i:. 

SS. Britta ( I ) and Maura, July :t. 
II"Tionrod at Tours. tf&lt;r liuitiin i 14). 



140 



ST. BRITTA 



St. Britta (2 ), or Brita. BRIGID (19) 
of Sweden is so called in Dalecarlia 

St. Brittifa, UIIKTTFVA. 

St. Bronacha, or BKOXANA, April 2. 
Abbess of Glensechis, in Ireland. Butler. 

St. Bronfinnia, UANFINNIA. 

B. Bronislavia. i:-ith century. A 
relation of St. Hyacinth, O.S.D., a canon 
of Cracow. In 1 857 the six hundredth 
anniversary of St. Hyacinth was cele 
brated with an eight days festival, 
special indulgences being granted in 
connection with it by Pius IX. On this 
occasion the picture of the Blessed 
Bronislavia was carried in procession in 
the church of the Dominicans. Her 
relics repose in the church of the canon- 
esses of St. Norbert. CivUta CattoUca, 
Nov., 1857. 

St. Broteva, BRETTIVA. 

St. Bruinech, BUKIAN. 

St. Bruna, ALDA. 

St. Bruncecha, or BRUNECH, May 
2i&gt;, V. Ancient Irish. Either ST. 
MOCHUA, daughter of Crimthan, or her 
sister. AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Brussia. Once worshipped in 
Attica. 

St. Bryde, BRIGID (2). 

St. Brykke, BRETTIVA. 

St. Bublasa, June 1, M. with ST. 

UCEGA. 

St. Bucella, or LUCELLA, May 10, M. 
an Africa. AA.SS. 

St. Bugga (1), ETHELBURGA. 

B. Bugga ( 2), EDBURGA (5). 

B. Bullona, MARGARET AGULLONE. 

St. Bunette, patron of a church in 
Berry. Mas Latrie, Tresor. 

St. Buolaie, patron of a church in the 
diocese of Lu^on. P.B. Migne. Stadler. 

B. Burgunda, July 8. A noble 



matron at Wurtzburg, in Franconia. 
There is no authority for her worship, 
although Arturus calls her Blessed. She 
is mentioned in the Arts of St. Kiltan. 
He was an Irish monk, who, with SS. 
Coloman, or Colonatus, and Totnan, went 
to preach the Christian religion in Fran 
conia. They converted the duke, anil 
made him put away his wife Geilana, 
who had been his brother s widow. She 
was so angry that, during the absence of 
the duke, she had the three missionaries 
murdered and their bodies concealed. 
Burgunda, who lived near the oratory of 
the three monks, knew what had hap 
pened, but did not dare to reveal it. 
She told it, however, before she died. 
Meantime, first the executioners and then 
the duchess were seized by the devil and 
died in torments, calling out the names 
of their victims. AA.SS., Prsetcr. 

St. Burgundofora is mentioned in 
the Roman Martyrohgy, April 3, as an 
abbess in England, and in Guerin s 
Dictionnaire Hogiographiqut, Jan., ). Pro 
bably ST. FARA is meant. So many 
English ladies attained great perfection 
under her rule, that she was doubtless 
highly venerated in England. 

St. Burian, May 1, 29, June 4, 19 
(BERIONA, BRUINECH, BURIENA). 6th 
century. One of the Irish saints who, 
like BRIDGET, ITA, and BRIGA, set up 
great schools for girls. This soon raised 
the status of women, which until then 
was very low. She migrated to Corn 
wall, and settled near the Land s End. 
Athelstane founded a collegiate church 
in her honour. Smith and "W ace. Baring- 
Gould, Book of the. West. Wilson, Eng 
lish Mart. AA.SS. Brit. Sancta. 

Buriena, BURIAX. 



c 



St. Cacola, GAKU.A. 

St. Cacra, CKCRA. 

St. Gael, Oct. 26, V. Sister of 
DAKHELIN. 

St. Caentigern, KENTIGERNA. 

St. Caesaria, or C^SAKIUS. (See 
CARMILLA. i 

St. Caia, or CAJA, Jan. 19, M. in 



Africa, with more than six hundred others. 
AA.SS. 

St. Caila, PIALA. 

St. Cain. First half of 6th century. 
Patron of Llangain, Caermartheushire. 
Daughter of ST. CAW. Sister of SS. 

GWENAFWY, CWYLLOO, PEILLAN, and 

PEITHIKN. Rees, 228. 



ST. CALLISTIIKM: 



141 



St. Cainder, or KKXNKKK, Nov. :-. 
daughter of Caelan of Rinnh Allaid. 
Irish. Forbes. K&lt;i/&lt; n&lt;l&lt;tr*. 

St. Cainner, or KKNNKKK, Jan. 28, 
Daughter of ( ruithnechan, worshipped 
at Kilcnllen, Kildare. Forbes, Kalen- 
Kennere," from Colgan. 

Caintigerna, KEXTIGEKXA. 

St. Caiola, GAIOLA. 

St. Cairecha, KAIKECHA. 

St. Calamanda, or CALAMANDHA, 
5, V. of Catalonia, M. Represented 
holding a palm-branch, in a picture in 
the church of St. James at Calaffum, 
where an altar was dedicated to her. 
Sin is invoked with success when rain 
is wanted. Some authors suppose her 
to have been a companion of ST. UKSULA. 
Henschenius, in AA.SS. 

St. Calamandra, CALAMANDA. 

Ven.Calefaie,orCALEFAGiA. Teacher 
of St. Ausonius, first bishop of Angou- 
leme. (iuerin. 

St. Calis. " (Sec CHAKIESSA.) 

St. Calista, Jan. ID, M. in Africa, 
witli more than six hundred others. 
AA.SS. 

St. Callinica (1), or CALLINICCS, 
March 22. "f c. 2,"&gt;2. In the reign of 
the Emperor Decius, ST. BASILISSA (2), 
a rich woman of Galatia, employed 
Callinica to carry gifts of money, food, 
and other necessaries to the imprisoned 
Christians ; at the same time, she used 
t entreat them to pray that her faith 
and courage might not fail in time of 
mid. One day Callinica was caught 
ministering to the prisoners. Her exami 
nation and confession led to the arrest 
&lt;&gt;f Hasilissa. Both avowing their belief 
in Christ, and steadfastly refusing to 
sa.-rilice to the idols, were tortured and 
beheaded. In some of the old calendars 
they are called two holy women ; in 
others, Calliuicus is called a man. Other 
accounts place them in the reign of 
Trajan, and descri1&gt;e them as two of the 
five companions of his daughter 13 KOZKLLA, 
"i 1 Another account says they 

were companions of St. Beryllus, a native 
of Antioch, appointed first Bishop of 
C.itiinia, in Sicily, by St. Peter the 
apostle. l;.M. j.l. 

St. Callinica i ii;. (8* Ni I:TA.) 

St. Calliope Lerama, June 8,V. M. 



Represented with a hot iron held to her 
breast. She is honoured in the Greek 
Church, and believed to have been put 
to death with tortures of peculiar atrocity 
in the reign of the Emperor Decius. 
The Spanish hagiologists say her martyr 
dom took place in the reign of Nero and 
at the town of Triboraci, called in her 
honour Lerma. There is a great deal 
more about her in Salazar which Hen 
schenius leaves to those who are greedy 
of such inventions. R.M.,AA.SS. Callot. 
Husenbeth. 

SS. Callista (1 ) and Christa, Feb. 
."&gt;, MM. They were hired to induce ST. 
DOKOTHY (1) to follow their example* 
and apostatize. They not only failed to- 
pervert her, but were influenced by her 
to repent and return to the true religion, 
and were martyred by being plunged 
into a boiling caldron. They are com 
memorated with SS. Dorothy and Theo- 
philus. Legend says they were sisters 
of Dorothy, but Tillemont does not 
mention this. Tillemont, v. 498. 

St. Callista (2), with her brothers, 
SS. Kvodius and Hermogenes, April 25, 
Sept. 2, M. c. :3&lt;&gt;4. She encouraged 
them to endure martyrdom at Syracuse. 
B.M. 

St. Callisthene, Oct. 4. 4th century. 
Lived at Ephesus with her father, St. 
Audactus, a Christian dnke. She un 
wittingly attracted the admiration of 
Maximianus (afterwards Emperor). As 
he was a monster of wickedness, Audac 
tus sent her out of the way. Maximianus 
revenged himself for her disappearance 
by confiscating the goods of the family, 
and banishing them to a neighbouring 
province. There the local authorities 
were ordered to compel Audactus to 
sacrifice to the gods, and, as ho resisted, 
ho was beheaded. Callisthene, to escapo 
from further persecution, cut off her hair 
and dressed herself as a man, and under 
this disguise lived for several years at 
Nicomedia. During this time she appears 
to have maintained herself by the prac 
tice of medicine. Wo next hear of her 
in Thrace, attending a girl who had a 
disease of the eyes and was threatened 
with blindness. She recovered, and her 
grateful parents were so pleased with 
their young doctor that they proposed 



142 



ST. CALLODATA 



to marry him to tboir daughter. Cal- 
listhene then confided her story to them, 
and she seems to have remained with 
them until she heard of the death of 
Maximianus. The same year an edict 
was published in favour of the Chris 
tians, and Licinius succeeded to the 
power and dignities of his colleague and 
rival. ( allisthene applied to Constantia, 
the Christian empress, who received her 
into her house, placed her children under 
her care, and persuaded Licinius to 
restore the property of Audactus to his 
-daughter. She next obtained permission 
to remove her father s body from the 
place of his martyrdom to Ephesus, where 
she lived righteously, and died in peace. 
The father and daughter are honoured 
together. Menology of Basil. AA.SS. 
Smith and Wace. Mas Latrie. 

St. Callodata, CALODATA. 

SS. Callwen and Gwenfyl, Nov. 1 . 
^)th century. Commemorated at Defynog 
and Llanddewi Brefe. Descendants of 
Brychan. See ALMHEDA. Baring-Gould. 
Rees. 

St. Calodota, or Callodata, Sept. &lt;&gt;. 
M. c. 2f&gt;0, at Alexandria, with THECLA, 
ANDROPELAGIA, and several others. Wife 
of one Cyrus. AA.SS. 

St. Calonica, May ID, M. Buried in 
the catacomb of Calixtus, Via Appia, 
Rome. AA.SS. 

St. Calpurnia ( 1 ), June 2. One of 
the 227 Roman martyrs commemorated 
together in the Mart t/r&lt;&gt;lo&lt;/i/ of St. Jerome. 
AA.SS. 

St. Calpurnia ( 2 ), commonly called 

.1 iM ANA OF TODI. 

St. Calricia, May r&gt; ( CAKICA, CARICIA, 
CAUISIA, (2)), M. at Milan, supposed 
under Maximian. AA.SS. 

St. Cama, June 4, M. in Cilicia, or 
Sicily. AA.SS. 

St. Camela, Sept. IT. (( AMKLIA, CA- 
MKLLA, CAMILLA i, V. Specially honoured 
at Toulouse, and in the diocese of Mire- 
poix, in Aquitaine, where a church and 
village bear her name. Supposed to 
have been martyred by the Albigeois 
heretics, or to have lived earlier than 
that time perhaps Hth or Dth century. 
Stilting, in AA.SS. Mas Latrie. Guerin 
calls her CAMILLA or CAMILIE, a Cister 
cian at Carcasonne. 



St. Camilla M , March 3, V. 
( 4:57. Disciple of St. Germanus. SS. 
Camilla, MAGNKNTIA, PALLADIA, MAXIMA, 
and PORCARIA accompanied the body of 
their master on its journey from Ravenna 
to Auxerre, in France ; but, overcome 
by the fatigues and difficulties of tho 
way, Camilla, Magnentia, and Palladia 
died, at different places, before its arrival 
at Auxerre. Palladia s death took place 
at Ste. Palaye, so called in her honour. 
Camilla was buried at Ecoulives. Her 
body and that of Palladia were burned 
by the Calvinists. Maxima built a 
church over tho tomb of St. Germanus, 
and was buried there herself. Porcaria 
was buried in another church dedicated 
in her honour, about nine miles from the 
town. It is uncertain whether these 
four saints were sisters or only fellow- 
disciples. Camilla is mentioned with 
St. Germanus in the Viola Sanctorum, 
and in a MS. Life of St. Maynriitid, 
quoted in AA.SS. 

St. Camilla (2), CAMELA. 

B. Camilla ( &gt; ), LUCY BAHTOLIXI Ru- 
CELLAI. 

St. Camilla ( 4 ), BAPTIST A VARAXI. 

B. Camilla- Pia, March 31, O.S.F. 
Founder, in 1504, of a convent of Claris- 
san nuns at Carpi, near Modena, in Italy. 
P.B. 

St. Camiona, or CANNIONA, one of 
the twelve companions of ST. BENEDICTA 
(7). Honoured at Le Mensil-Saint- 
Laurent, near Origny. 

St. Candedia, May 1 0, M. at Tarsus, 
in Cilicia. AA.SS. 

St. Candia, CANDIDA (11). 

St. Candida (1) the Elder, Sept. 3. 
1 st century. Patron of Naples. When 
St. Peter, the apostle, was on his way to 
Rome, after he had founded the Church 
in Antioch, he passed through Naples, 
where he was kindly received by an old 
widow named Candida. When he spoke 
to her of the Christian faith, she said she 
would believe in his God if he could 
cure her of excessive pains in her head, 
from which she had suffered for many 
years. He cured her and instructed and 
baptized her. She then besought his 
aid for a good old man who was helpless 
and suffering much from a grievous 
disease. St. Peter gave her his staff, and 



ST. CANDIDA 



1!:; 



bade her go and touch her friend with it 
in the name of Christ. She cured her 
friend, and the staff was long preserve*! 
in the church at Naples. R.M. A.[.SS. 
St. Candida (2), Dec. 1. 1st cen 
tury. M. at Rome, in the time of Trajan, 
with Lucius her husband, Rogatus and 
Cassiau. Candida,Lucius,SergiusPaulus, 
and many others were converted by St. 
Paul at Paphos, in Cyprus. Jt.M. 



St. Candida en, June &lt;;. M. with 
her husband, St. Artemins, a jailor, and 
their daughter, ST. PAULINA ( t&gt; ), in the 
Diocletian persecution, at the end of the 
;ird or beginning of the 4th century. 
Paulina was vexed with a devil. B. 
Peter, a prisoner in the custody of Ar- 
tcniius, healed her by his prayers, and 
was thus the means of converting Arte- 
mius, Candida, and their daughter. They 
with all their house and many others 
at least three hundred men, besides women 
were baptized by 1J. Marcellinus, a pres 
byter. When the judge Serenus heard 
this, and Artemius refused to sacrifice to 
idols, he ordered him with his wife and 
daughter to bo buried under a mighty 
pile of stones. As they were being led 
to the place, so many Christians met 
them that the murderers fled affrighted, 
only to bo pursued, caught, and detained 
as prisoners until Marcellinus had cele 
brated Mass in the crypt where the 
saints were to suffer. Marcellinus said 
to, them, " Lo, we had it in our power 
to injure you, and to take away from 
you Artemius and his daughter ; but this 
we have not done. What say you to 
this ? " Gnashing with their teeth upon 
the mm of God, they slew Artemius 
with tho sword ; Candida and Paulina 
lh&lt;y cast headlong from the crypt 
probably :i cave and overwhelmed them 
wit: Another account says 

- into tho crypt," and udds that Artciniii* 
ben with "lead-weighted thongs." 
The (.ninifin. .ration of St. Artemius is 
piv-cribL-d in the I .n.-viary of Tours, 
I ! :! . It.M. .1.1. NX., from a vi-ry 
iiiM-i--iit 3I&gt;. In -longing t the church if 
aviour at 

St. Candida (4j, Sep. 20, V. M. 
sic.-t.r.ling to tin- IinnKin Martyrdlogy, at 
Curtilage, under Maximian, but claimed 



by tho Church of Carthagena, in Spain, as 
a martyr there. Patron, with ST. CIIAKI- 
TIN \ i ! &gt;, of ( arthagena. 

St. Candida ("&gt;), Aug. !"., V. M. 
whose body was translated by Pope 
Pascal I. (SM-S24) into the church of 
St. Praxedis at Rome. H.M. This is, 
purhaps, tho same as CANDIDA (4). 

St. Candida (&lt;&gt;), Jan. 7, M. in Greece. 
AA.SS. 

St. Candida (7), Jan. 7. AA.SS. 

St. Candida (*), Sept. 28, M. in 
Africa. AA.S*. 

St. Candida (i), Aug. :n. 4th 
century. Lived in Rome with her 
intimate friend, ST. MAKCELLINA (1), and 
followed her to Milan. Candida was 
buried in the basilica of St. Ambrose, 
and has been venerated with the title of 
" Saint f&gt; ever since the !Hh century. 
Her portrait in mosaic is in the choir 
with those of Marcellina and Satyrus. 
Her name is in the oldest manuscript of 
the Litany used on Rogation days. In 
very ancient times she was included in 
the Catalogue of Milanese Saints, and 
honoured by a special service on Aug. 
. 11. Lady Herbert, Marcellina. 

St. Candida ( 1 0), wife of a general 
named Trajan. She and her daughter, 
a holy virgin, who predeceased her, were 
much given to manual labour, because 
Candida said that fasting was not enough 
to keep tho devil out, hard work also 
was necessary. ST. GKLASIA was a 
disciple of Candida. PaUadii Lausiaca. 

St. Candida (1 l),or CAXDIA, Oct. 22, 
V. M. Native of Tortosa, in Spain. 
Companion of ST. URSULA. AA.SX. 

St. Candida (12) the Younger, 
Sept. 4, Of Naples, f ."&gt;HU. A very 
pious woman, who loved God better than 
her husband and only son. She died 
before them and was buried in the 
cl nirch of St. Andrew, in a place called 
Ail Nidum, in or near Naples. Some 
time afterwards a miraculous liquid 
flowed from her tomb, and was found 
to bo a euro for various diseases. ll.M. 
J.I. NX. 

St. Candida ( 1 - 5), Jan. L 7. Towards 
tho end of tho sth century. Worshipped 
at the monastery of I Janoles and village of 
Gujalbrs. iirnr Gerona, in &gt;pain. Wife 
of a devout nobleman nam-.-d I .andilo. 



144 



B. CANDIDA 



To their regret, they had n children. 
At last God told them that they should 
have a son, who would be one of His 
great servants. When he was born they 
called him Emerius. 

The Christians in the north of Spain, 
being oppressed by the Moors, sent to 
ask help of Charles, king of France. (It 
is uncertain whether it was Charles 
Martel or his grandson Charlemagne.) 
They lost many battles, and their resist 
ance ceased. After some years it was 
revealed to the king that the time had 
come for him to renew the war against 
the Moors, and that Emerius, who was 
then a hermit, was destined to help him. 
The king accordingly took him for his 
guide. During this campaign, Emerius 
procured bread for hungry Christians 
and restored to life those who died of 
famine. The king besieged the city of 
Querquens for seven years, and then he 
resolved to raise the siege and go 
into Catalonia. As he began to draw off 
his army, Emerius cried out, " king, 
come to Querquenssoua." He returned 
and took the city, and it was called 
Carcassonne. Then he went into Cata 
lonia, to a marshy place called Balneoli, 
infested by a lion, the terror of the 
people. Emerius caught it by pouring 
holy water on it. He built a church 
and monastery on the place, and dedicated 
them in the name of St. Stephen. The 
king and army did not want to part with 
him ; but as he was determined to leave 
all secular concerns, they made him 
abbot, to establish the Benedictine rule 
there. Some time after, Candida having 
become a widow, went in search of her 
son, and found him in the island of 
Fargat. Great was the joy of both, but 
after a few days Emerius realized that 
the delight of his mother s society was 
winning his heart back to earth, and as 
he had decided to give it all to God, he 
requested her to go and leave him. She 
said, " Oh, my son, we have had so little 
happiness and comfort together : let me. 
stay with you and serve God and lead a 
life of poverty." He said it could not 
be, but he would send her away only as 
far as he could throw his stick. She 
consented, thinking it would bo only a 
few yards ; but he threw it a very long 



way. She kept her promise and took up 
her abode in the place he had assigned 
to her, and there she ended her days. 
AA.SS. Bucelinus, M&lt;n. Ben. 

B. Candida (14), BLANCHE, queen of 
France. 

St. Canna, Oct. 2:&gt;. (3th century. 
Native of Bretagne. Wife, first, of St. 
Sadwrn, also a Breton, and by him 
mother of St. Crallo. She migrated to 
Wales with her first husband, and there, 
secondly, she married Gallgu Rieddog, 
and was by him mother of St. Elian 
Geimad. Elian is in Latin Hilarius. 
Sadwrn was nephew of Canna s great- 
uncle, St. Germain of Auxcrrc. They 
were related to many Welsh and Armo- 
rican saints. They give names to several 
places in Wales. AA.SS. Rees, Welsh 
Saints, p. 222, says she founded Llan- 
ganna, in Glamorgan, and Llangan in 
Caermarthen. 

St. Cannera, or CAXXEBIA, Jan. 28, 
V. Oth century. A native of Bentraig, 
near Bantry Bay. Her kinsman, St. 
Senan, founded and ruled a small com 
munity of monks in Scattery, near the 
mouth of the Shannon. One of his most 
important rules was that no woman 
should enter that island. Cannera, how 
ever, was determined to be buried there, 
and to receive the last sacrament from the 
hands of Senan. Guided there by an angel 
or by a vision, she begged him to allow 
her to land. He positively refused to let 
her set foot on the place consecrated to- 
the use of his community. He told her 
to go to his mother COMGELLA (2), who- 
lived near. Cannera said she had taken 
this long journey on purpose to have a 
perpetual resting-place in his island; 
that Christ suffered for both sexes, and 
opened the gate of heaven to women as 
well as to men ; and that the apostles 
suffered women to minister to them, and 
did not disdain their hospitality or 
society. After a great deal of argument, 
she said she would only ask that in her 
life she should receive the Holy Com 
munion, and in death as much earth on 
the shore as would cover her. Senan 
contended that the sea would wash away 
her grave. She said it would not. At 
last he consented. He gave her the 
holy viaticum, and she immediately died 



SS. CAPITOL1XA AND BROTHELS 



145 



and was buried ou the coast of Scattery, 
Ami not only do the waves never encroach 
on her grave, but navigators in danger 
ii.-ar Ireland invoke her assistance with 
success. Lauigan. Colgan. AAJ3S. 
lil\" ,-tn fe. Dr. Led wick considers 
- . i nus to be the personification of the 
river Shannon. 

St. Canniona, CAMION A. 

St. Cansiona, patron of a church 
mentioned by Innocent III. 

St. Cantia, Nov. 2o, V.M. Honoured 
at Toscanella, in Tuscany. Ferrarius, 
^ atciloffus. 

St. Cantiana (1), June l."&gt;, M. at 
Lucania, honoured with St. Vitus. (See 
BNTIA ( l;.) AA.SS. 

St. Cantiana (2), CAXTIAXILLA (1). 

St. Cantianilla ( 1) or CAXTIAN A 2 . 
May :il, M. . i&lt;&gt;4. She and her brothers 
&lt; antius and Cantianus, with their gover 
nor St. Protus, are commonly called the 
C antian Martyrs. They were related to 
the Emperor Carinus, and were of the 
noble Koman family of the Anicii, as 
illustrious for having given several 
martyrs and confessors of both sexes to 
the Church as for having given consuls 
and Kmperors to Rome. They were 
brought up in the Christian faith, and 
when the persecution began, under Dio 
cletian and Maximian, they sold their 
property in Rome, liberated their slaves, 
distributed their money to the poor, and 
went to Aquileia, in Istria, where they 
had other estates. They were accom 
panied by Protus, their faithful friend 
and adviser. The persecuting edict 
arrived before them at Aquileia, and 
when they got there, hoping to see their 
iri -nd, the venerable priest St. Chryso- 
gonus, he had already been put to death 
a month before by the enemies of tho 
t hnrch. Next day they went to visit 
th- ( hristians who were in prison. Their 
conduct was soon reported totheEmper&gt;r, 
who sent orders for their arrest. They 
\-inil. -in in a chariot drawn by mules, 
intending to conceal themselves at tho 
tomb of St. Chrysogouus, at Aqii.-i- 
latro, a village, now called San 
&lt; antiano, four miles from Aquileia ; but 
one of their mules falling lame by tin- 
way, they were overtaken, and as they 
utterly refused to obey the Kmp.-ror s 



command and renounce their religion, 
they were at once beheaded. They tie 
mentioned in a sermon attributed to St. 
Ambrose, and in some old martyrologies. 
l!;iillet esteems their story to be true, 
although the Acts published by the Bol- 
landists are not genuine. It.M. Hen- 
schenius, in AA.88. Butler. 

St. Cantianilla (2;, June i;&gt;, M. in 
Uarbary. Guerin. 

St. Cantide, or CAXTIS, Aug. 5. 
Guerin. 

St. Cantionilla, QI-IXTIAXILLA. 

St. Cantis, CANTIDE. 

SS. Capitolina and Erotheis or 
EBOTIS, her maid, Oct. 27, MM. 304, in 
Cappadocia, under Diocletian. Capito 
lina was a woman of high rank in Cap 
padocia. When brought to trial as a 
Christian, she was asked her name, 
country, and parentage. She answered, 
** I am a Christian, my country is tho 
heavenly Jerusalem, my parents are the 
teachers of Christianity, and chiefly the 
great Firmilianus, bishop of Cwsarea in 
Cappadocia." When she had resisted 
all the persuasions and threats used by 
Zolicinthius, tho judge, to induce her to 
renounce her faith and worship the gods 
particularly Serapis she was sent to 
prison. A person who had been present 
at the trial ran to her house and told 
her maid Erotis, who was baking, and 
was just going to put loaves in the oven. 
She left her work, and ran to tho prison 
and kissed the fetters that bound her 
mistress; she congratulated her on tho 
prospect of martyrdom, and begged her 
to pray that her maid also might be 
found worthy to share her fate. Capito 
lina told her not to fear, but bo present 
on the morrow and witness her execution. 
Erotis went home, finished her cooking, 
and took the bread to tho prison. Capi 
tolina bade her give it to the poor, and 
then sell all her mistress s things and 
distribute tho money to tho poor. Erotis 
obeyed the order, and next day, when 
Capitolina was brought before the judge, 
ht-r zealous servant assailed him with 
stones and abuse. When she had seen 
hi-r mistress transfixed with a sword, 
was asked how a person of her mean 
station could dare to behave in this 
manner. She replied by reviling tho 



146 



ST. CAPPA 



judge and his gods ; and wfcs put to 
horrible tortures, under which she ceased 
not to thank God. Her wounds were 
miraculously healed, and she came un- 
scorched out of a furnace into which she 
was cast. At length she was beheaded, 
the day after St. Capitolina. E.M. J/"&lt;- 
Basil. AA.SS. 

St. Cappa, Feb. 2, M. with CASTULA 
(VI) and many others, at Rome, supposed 
nnder Diocletian. AA.SS., Mart. St. 
Jerome. 

St. Captiva, NINO. 

St. Carecha, Feb. 9. f 578. Abbess 
of a nunnery in Gal way or Roseommon. 
She was of the illustrious house of the 
princes of Orgiel. Sister of ST. FANCHEA, 
also of Enna, or Enda, founder and abbot 
of a monastery at Arran-of-the-Saints, in 
the bay of Galway, where St. Brendan 
of Clonfert spent three days with him 
before setting sail on his famous voyage 
in search of the Earthly Paradise. This 
Enna was the son of Caial of Clogher, 
and grandson of Damen, and his mother 
is said to have been Dairine, a sister of 
King Aengus. Lanigan. 

St. Careme, CARISSIMA. 

St. Caria. (See ACRABONIA and 

ASKAMA.) 

St. Carica, CALRICIA. 

Caricia, CALRICIA. 

St. Cariesse, CHARIESSA. 

St. Carina, CASINA. 

St. Carinia, March 6, M. at Nicopo- 
lis. Guerin. 

St. Caris, CHARIS. 

St. Carisia ( 1), or CHARISIA, March 1 , 
M. Guerin. 

St. Carisia (2), CALRICIA. 

St. Carissa, June li&gt;, V. M. One of 
the companions of ST. URSULA. Trans 
lated from Cologne to Viconia, in Hain- 
ault, June 10, 1157. AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Carissima, or CHAiussiMA,Sept. 7, 
Oct. 11, V. (3th or 7th century. Called 
in French CHRKME, or CAUEME. Honoured 
in the diocese of Albi. According to 
local legend, she was of noble birth, 
persecuted by her parents to marry 
Hugolino of Chateau Vieux. Having a 
vow to the contrary, she fled and con 
cealed herself in a wood for three years, 
her hiding-place being known only to 
her nurse, who brought her bread. She 



raised the nurse s child from the dead, 
and, fearing the miracle would cause her 
to be discovered, she crossed the Tarn, 
and, after wandering long in desert 
places, she met St. Eugenius, bishop of 
Carthage, then an exile. He founded a 
monastery at Vieux, on the Vere, and 
seven years afterwards buried her in it. 
The monastery of Yieux is proved not 
to have been founded by Eugenius, 
bishop of Carthage, which casts doubt 
on the story. Carissima s translation is- 
celebrated at Albi with that of St. Eugene 
and other martyrs, on Oct. 11. Stilting, 
in AA.SS. F.M. 

St. Carita, April 1:1, M. AA.SS. 

St. Caritaine, or CHARITANA, June 
12, M. at Rome. Mas Latrie. 

St. Caritas. ( See FAITH, HOPE, and 
CHARITY.) 

SS. Carmilla and Caesaria, or 
C-ESARIUS, March 2:5. Mentioned in the 
account of SS. Paul and Julian, MM., 
but it is unknown whether they are the 
names of persons or of places. Paul 
and Julian are supposed to have suffered 
under the Vandals, but no particulars 
are known. AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Carmimdica, Sept. in or 12 
(BONA (1), MUNDIOOUDA), V. Recluse 
in Egypt. AA.SS., Prseter. 

B. Carola, one of the nine sisters of 
ST. RAIXFREDE. 

St. Carpia, May 27, M. in Africa. 
AAJS8. 

St. Carra, Jnne 1, M. with ST. 
AVCKGA. 

St. Casaira, Jan. 25, V. (See ELVIRA.) 

St. Casaria 0), Dec. 8 (CAZARIE, 
CESARIA (4)). f 5Si &gt;. Wife of St. 
Valens. They made a vow of virginity 
on the day of their marriage, distributed 
their goods to tho poor, and led an ascetic 
life in the place where afterwards stood 
the Benedictine abbey of St. Andrew of 
Villeneuve, near Avignon. The clergy 
and people of Avignon chose Valens for 
their bishop. Ho buried Casaria in a 
little chapel on the hill of Audaon. He 
died, aged eighty, about 5!&gt; 1 . P.B. Her 
head, when placed on that of a sick 
person, eases pain. F.M. Martin. 

St. Casaria &lt; 2 ), May 1 &lt; &gt;, V. M. Her 
worship was ordered in the Frislarian Di 
rectory in 1&gt;70. Her body was supposed 



ST. CASILLA 



it: 



by 1 rensclicnius to bo then recently found 
in one of the Ivoman cemeteries. I for 
history was unknown to him. . !.!.&gt; V 

St. Casdia, CABDOA. 

St. Casdoa, Sept. L ;* (CAfflpiA, 
CASIHIK i. Wife of Didas, or Dada, kins 
man of Sapor, king of Persia, by whom 
they and their son (iabdelas were de 
prived of their rank and property, and, 
after a long imprisonment, beheaded. 
By another account she was wife of 
Sapor. /Of. AA.SS. 

SS. Casia, Philippa, and Eutychia 
were tried with AGAPK (:&gt;), CHIOXIA, and 
IitKNK, and remanded to prison, there 
to be starved to death. Whether the 
sentence was carried out is not known, 
but they are accounted martyrs. 

St. Casilda, April i (CASILLA, CAS- 
HLDA). "f c. the middle of the Ilth 
century. Patron of Toledo. Invoked 
against dysentery. Represented carry 
ing roses in her lap. 

Daughter of a Moorish king of Toledo, 
called by different authors Alimaymon, 
Aldemon, and Cano. This king was a 
friend of Alfonso VI He had a palace 
on the spot where afterwards stood the 
monastery of Santa Fe, and a prison near 
it where the hospital of Santa Cruz was 
built. In that prison were many Chris 
tian captives, whom Casilda could see 
from her windows in the palace. She 
had a brother named Alimaymon, who 
was converted to Christianity, and took 
the name of Peter on his baptism, in 
consequence of which he is commonly 
remembered as the Infante Petran, and 
tin place where the B. V. Mary appeared 
to him is called to this day Nuestra 
&gt;ra do Sepetran. His conversion led 
to that of his sister. He found many 
ways of alleviating the sufferings of the 
&lt; hristian prisoners and slaves, and soon 
Ida, although still a Mohammedan, 
| joined him in this charitable work. One 
day, as she was going to the prison, 
^attended by servants carrying baskets of 
i and other comforts, she met her 
lather, who asked her what she had in 
those baskets. S!n- was afraid, and 
answered, " Roses." The king, however, 
suspected the truth, and opened tin; 
baskets. He found th.-m full of roses; 
but when distributed to the &lt; hristians 



they were changed back again to bread, 
nil -at, etc. The same miracle is told of 
86, KI.!/.AI:I:TH OF HUXGAKY, Boa 01 



After this Casilda was disposed to 
believe in the doctrine of the Christians, 
and they gladly instructed her in their 
religion. She had dysentery, and kept 
growing worse, in spite of all the care 
and advice of all the doctors in the king 
dom. The Christians told her she would 
recover if she went and bathed in the 
lake of San Vicente, near Burgos, as 
there were leeches in it that would suck 
away all the bad blood, and completely 
cure her complaint. She was extremely 
anxious to try it, but it was in ( hristian 
territory. King Alimaymon, however, 
procured a safe conduct for her from 
Fernando I., king of Castile. She set 
out, accompanied by two maids, and 
taking a present of Christian slaves ta 
the king. On the way, she had to cross 
a narrow bridge. The devil, foreseeing 
that ho would lose a precious soul if 
Casilda went to a Christian country and 
was baptized, took this opportunity to 
frighten her mule. She fell into the 
water, and would certainly have been 
drowned but for the timely interference 
of an angel. At Burgos she recovered, 
and was baptized in the church of St. 
Vincent. She would not return to Toledo, 
but remained among the Christians, and 
lived as a religious recluse in a hut on 
the banks of the lake. She attempted 
to build a church on its borders, but the 
work of each day was mysteriously i - 
moved by night to the top of the hill, 
so in the end the church was built there. 
After some years her illness returned. 
Keeling that death was near, she entreated 
that if any one over prayed in her name 
for recovery, especially from the com 
plaint of which she was dying, the prayer 
might be granted. Yepez places her 
death about 1047. Some accounts make 
it later. 

Yepez, Sermon 1 "). Onintadueno, 
Siintti* &lt;1&lt;&gt; Toledo. Moroni, Di //&gt;., 
"Toledo." I iipobrochjin/Lt.XX. Cahier. 
Ilusenbeth, Euil1&gt; //&lt;*. Flore/., /&gt;//?/ 
S i jrn 1 ^ xxvii. 7.*&gt;4, gives the legend with 
slight variations. 

St. Casilla, CASILDA. 



148 



ST. CAST X A 



St. Casina, Nov. 7 (CARIN.^ CASSINK &gt;, 
M. at Ancyra, 302. Wife of St. Mela- 
sippus, and mother of St. Anthony. 
They were all imprisoned on account of 
their religion. Anthony was thirteen 
when he was brought from his prison to 
see his parents hung up and cut to 
pieces. Casina had her breasts cut off; 
they both died under the torture. An 
thony kissed their wounds, and anointed 
himself with their blood. He next spat 
in the face of the Emperor Julian the 
Prevaricator, whereupon he also was 
made to undergo cruel tortures. His 
courage and constancy and other miracles 
caused the conversion of forty boys, all 
of whom were put to death with him. 
There is no contemporary account, but 
it is known that Julian the Apostate, 
although he affected toleration, hated 
the Christians, and allowed them to be 
persecuted under various pretexts. R.M. 
jiff//. Basil. Lobeau, Bas. Empire, ii. 
438. 

SS. Cassia and Paula, July 20, M. 
with fourteen others at Damascus. E.M. 
AA.SS. 

St. Cassilda, CASILDA. 

St. Cassine, CASINA. 

St. Casta (1), June 1, M. with ST. 

AUCEGA. 

St. Casta (2), Feb. 22, M. with ST. 
ANTIGA and others at Nicomedia. AA.SS. 

St. Casta (3), Feb. 2:,, M. with 
others, supposed in Pamphylia. Men 
tioned in old martyrologies. AA.SS. 

St. Castell, Jan. 27. The wife of 
St. Julian the Hospitaller is so called in 
the Martijroloqy of Salisbury. In some 
editions of the Life of St. Julian, his wife 
is called CASTELLANA a certain Chate 
laine. (See BASILISSA (0).) 

St. Castellana, CASTELL. 

St. Castonica, April 13, M. AA.SS. 

B. Castora, June 14 or i :&gt;. f i :;.&gt; i . 
O.S.F. Widow. Daughter of Petruccio 
Gabrielli, an eminent citizen of Gubbio. 
Castora married Santuccio Sanfonerio, 
count of Castello, San Martino, and 
Bassinaro, and D.C.L. They lived at 
St. Angelo in Vado. He was unkind to 
her. She had one son, whom she brought 
up in the fear of God. During her 
husband s life she devoted all her spare 
time to works of charity, and on his 



death she joined the Third Order of St. 
Francis. She was buried in the habit of 
the order, in the Franciscan church of 
St. Angelo in Vado. Henschenius, 
AA.SS. 

Castula. There are several martyrs 
of this name, of whom little is known ; 
it is sometimes written CASTULUS ; the 
sex is uncertain. 

St. Castula ( 1 ), June :&gt;, M. at Koine. 

St. Castula (2), June 2. One of 
227 Roman martyrs commemorated to 
gether in St. Jerome s Martyrologv. 

St. Castula ( 3 ), or CATULA/ilay 2S, 
M. in Rome with St. Cummin and many 
others. 

St. Castula (4), May 31, M. at 
Gerona, in Spain. 

St. Castula ( ."&gt; ), May 7, M. in Africa. 

St. Castula ((&gt;), March 2f&gt;, M. with 
more than four hundred others at Nice, 
in Bithynia. 

St. Castula (7, s, &gt; ), June 1, MM. 
commemorated with ST. AUCEGA. 

St. Castula d&lt;, Feb. 17, V. M. 
at Terano, 273. Disciple of St. Valen 
tine. 

St. Castula Hi), Feb. 22, M. with 
ST. ANTIGA and others at Nicomedia. 

St. Castula 02), Feb. 2, M. with 
CAPPA and many others. 

St. Castula (13), Feb. 15. Com 
panion of ST. AGAPE (2). 

St. Castula (14), Feb. 1~&gt;. Com 
panion of ST. GEMELLA (2 ). 

St. Castula O"&gt;), June 2, M. at 
Lyons, not with BLANDIXA. 

St. Castula (16), Jan. 2.5, of Capua. 
AAJ38. 

St. Castulina, June 1. One of 227 
Roman martyrs commemorated together 
in St. Jerome s Martyrology. AA.SS. 

Catalina, CATHERINE. 

Catalla, CATULLA. 

Catelergue, CATHERINE. 

Cateline, CATHERINE. 

Caterina, CATHERINE. 

Catheau, CATHERINE. 

Catherine. The following are some 
of the many variants of this name : 
JKrATHARixA, Greek; CATALINA. Spanish; 
CATELEKGUE, CATELIM:, CATHEAU, local 
French; CATERINA, CATTAKIXA, Italian; 
CAWTH, KATHLEEN, Irish; KAREN, Swe 
dish ; KATHERINE, KATE, etc. 



ST. GATHER INK 



lit! 



St. Catherine i 1 i, Nov. :&gt;:&gt;, V. M. 
at Alcxuiulria about :&gt;i:i. Perhaps the 
same person who is called DOHOTHEA 
by Rutinus. Represented ( 1 ) being 
married to the Saviour, the Infant Christ 
on His mother s lap, placing a ring on 
her finger ; ( 2 ) a wheel armed with huge 
thorn-shaped spikes standing beside her ; 
sitting crowned, with a book on her 
lap ; ( 4 ) teaching ; (o) trampling on 
th Emperor; ( &lt;&gt; ) dead, and carried by 
angels to Mount Sinai. Besides these 
distinctive representations, she generally, 
in common with other martyrs, holds a 
palm and a sword. She is one of the 
four ^ivat virgin martyrs who are patrons 
of the Greek Church; the others are 
BS, HAKHAHA, MAIUJAKET, and EUPIIEMIA. 
Patron of Venice, Guastalla, Goa, Scala 
near Amalfi, Magdeburg, Zwickau, and 
many other places ; of students, young 
girls, philosophers, theologians, notaries ; 
of schools and colleges; of learning, 
education, and science ; of the millers of 
Liege ; of the Barefooted Order of the 
Holy Trinity. Often chosen by princesses 
and high-born ladies as the saint of their 
special devotion. 

The Legend. St. Catherine was the 
daughter of a king of Egypt, and was 
related to the Emperor Constantino. 
She was extremely beautiful, clever, and 
learned. When she succeeded to her 
father s kingdom and wealth, she had 
many oilers of marriage, but she declined 
t IK in all. Her tastes were all for science 
and study, and she had no vocation for 
married life. Her parliament, with 
many compliments to her beauty and 
wisdom, urged her strongly to change 
her resolve and choose a husband. Her 
answer, in the words of the Legenda 
A u &lt;/, was 

" We lete you playnelye wyto that 
lyke as ye haue descryued us so wyl wo 
descryue hyin that we wyll haue to our 
lord and husl.oml, and if yo can gete 
suche one we wyl agree to take hym 
wytli alle our hcrte, for he that thai bo 
lord of my n lierte and myn husbond shal 
have tho four notable thynges in hym 
OIKT al nit sure. Soo ferfortlily that al 
creatures shall have node of hym, and 
ho iicdeth of none. And ho that shal be 
my lord must be of KO noble blood that 



al men shal do to hym worshyp, and 
thenvyth so greto a lord that I shal neuer 
thynke that 1 made hym a kyngo and so 
rirho that he passe al other in rychesses. 
And so ful of beauto that angollys hauo 
joye to behohle hym, and so pure that 
his moder bo a virgyne, and soo meko 
and benygne that ho can gladly forgyeno 
al offencys do on unto hyra. Now I hauo 
descryued to you hym that I wyl hauo 
and desyro to my lord and to my husbond, 
goo yo and seke hym, and if yo can fyndo 
suche one I wyl be his wyf with al inyn 
herte yf he vouche sauf to hauo me, and 
fynally but yf ye fyndo suche one I shal 
neuer take none. And take this for a fyual 
answer." 

Now, the B. V. MAIIY appeared to 
Adrian, a holy hermit in the desert, " a 
certain space of myles" from Alexandria, 
and sent him to Catherine, with greetings 
from the mother of the husband she had 
chosen, for " that thylke same lord whom 
she chaas is my sone that am a pure vyrgyne, 
and he desyreth hir beauto and loveth 
hir chastyto emonge allo the virgynes 
on the orthe." Catherine goes to the 
hermit s cell and is baptized, and then 
she has a vision, in which the Child Jesus 
marries her with a ring. 

The Lcyycndarios add another episode 
before her baptism and marriage. She 
had a dream, in which tho B. V. Mary 
appeared to her, in great beauty anil 
splendour, carrying her Divine Son in 
her arms. The Child seemed to her 
very beautiful, but His face was towards 
His mother, so that Catherine could not 
seo it. She walked a few steps, first to 
one side and then to tho other, trying to 
look upon the face which she know must 
bo divinely beautiful ; in vain : tho Child 
always turned His bijck to her, to her 
great grief. At last His mother asked 
Him to look at Catherine and admire 
her, telling Him how beautiful and how 
rich and how wise and good she was. 
But Ho said, "No, she is ugly and poor 
and foolish ; I do not want to seo her." 
The mother said, "What can poor 
Catherine do to please you?" Tho 
child replied, " Let her go and ask tho 
hermit." Catherine awoke, anxious and 
unhappy, and went and told her dream 
to Adrian, who instructed her in tho 



150 



ST CATHERINE 



Christian religion, and soon baptized her. 
Then came the vision of her marriage. 

At this crisis the Emperor Maximinus 
ordered a grand sacrifice to the heathen 
gods, and commanded all the Christians 
in Alexandria to assist. Every man was 
to bring one beast or more, according 
to his ability. The sacrifices were so 
numerous that the altars smoked con 
tinually. The Emperor resolved to finish 
the solemnity by a great sacrifice of one 
hundred oxen. Catherine went with a 
retinue of servants to the temple, and de 
manded an audience of the Emperor, who 
was amazed at her beauty, and encouraged 
her to speak. She argued with him in 
favour of the Christian doctrines. He 
ordered fifty of the most learned heathen 
philosophers and rhetoricians to dispute 
with her, promising them great rewards 
if they could convert her. They were 
at first indignant at being asked to argue 
with a young woman, but soon not only 
consented to listen to her opinions, but 
were converted by her. The Emperor 
then appointed fifty others, whom also 
she converted. He condemned them all 
to be burnt. They fell at Catherine s 
feet, asking her how they could be saved, 
as they had not time to be baptized. She 
assured them that their martyrdom would 
be to them instead of baptism. Some 
Christians who came to bury their ashes 
found their bodies entire, not a hair hav 
ing perished in the fire. This miracle 
caused more conversions. Catherine was 
beaten and otherwise tortured, and thrown 
into a dungeon. Her wounds were mi 
raculously healed, and a dove brought 
her food. The Empress, who is called in 
different versions of the legend Helen 
and FAUSTINA, visited her in prison, 
through the connivance of Porphyry, 
captain of the Emperor s guard. Both 
%vero converted by Catherine, and when 
they attempted to plead her cause, they 
were put to death. The Emperor then 
offered to make Catherine Empress if she 
would abjure her religion. Exasperated 
by her refusal, ho devised an engine con 
sisting of four wheels armed with spikes, 
which were to tear her in pieces. As 
soon, however, as she was bound between 
the wheels, fire fell from heaven, and 
destroyed them, the pieces flying among 



the people, and killing three thousand 
of them. Catherine was then beheaded. 
Her dying prayer was that her body 
might not fall into the hands of the 
pagans ; accordingly, angels carried it 
to Mount Sinai, where it remains to this 
day. 

The earliest mention of St. Catherine 
in the Eastern Church is in the Sth or Oth 
century, when the Christians, then groan 
ing under the rule of the Saracens, dis 
covered her body in Egypt. It was 
translated to a monastery on Mount 
Sinai, built by the Empress HELEN, and 
enlarged by Justinian. The legend of 
its being carried there by angels is said 
by Falconius, archbishop of San-Severino, 
to mean that it was taken by the monks 
of Sinai to enrich their dwelling with 
this treasure. After the Crusades the 
legend and the worship of Catherine 
were widely spread in Western Europe. 
Her popularity is extraordinary, con 
sidering the small historical foundation 
on which it rests. Eusebius tells that a 
Christian lady, the richest and noblest 
of the women of Alexandria, and very 
learned and discreet, excited the licen 
tious admiration of Maximinus (the 
legend says Maxentius : both were living 
at the time ), and as she would not listen 
to him, he banished her and confiscated 
her property. Eusebius does not mention 
her name. Rufinus calls her DOROTHEA. 
Baronins conjectures that this was her 
name before her conversion, and that 
she may have returned from her exile 
and suffered martyrdom. 

R.M. Yillegas. Assemani. Mrs. Jame 
son, Sacred and Legendary Art. Baillet, 
Vies. Butler, Liccs. Neale, East&gt; m 
ClnrcJi. Baronius, Annalcs. Lo Beau, 
Hist. Bax. Empire, i. 7."&gt;. 

St. Catherine (2 ), or RACHEL, May 4, 
Sept. i\( ), of Louvain ; called also " of 
Brabant," " the Jewess," and by different 
authors, " Saint," "Blessed," and "Vener 
able." IMth century. 

Between 1124 and 12SS there was a 
rich Jew of Cologne who cared only for 
his trade and the money he made by it. 
He had a little daughter, named Rachel, 
who, although scarcely more than a baby, 
always listened attentively when her 
father argued and disputed on religious 



ST. CATHERINE 



doctrines with ft Christian priest who 
sometimes visited at the house. She 
said nothing, Init it always seemed to 
her that the Christian had the best of the 
argument. When she was five years old, 
her parents went to livo at Louvain, and 
then- Rachel sometimes played with 

&lt; hristiun children. She began to think 
Christian names much prettier than 
Jewish ones ; the name of Mary in par 
ticular pleased her very much, and, 
although a Jewish name, it was much 
more general among Christians than 
J \vs. Sometimes she -went with her 
little friends to the house of a good 
priest named Reynier. He and his 
servant Martha taught her for a year 
and a half, and she wearied them with 
her insatiable desire to learn. At last 
her parents looked up from their money 
bags, and began to perceive what their 
daughter was doing under their very 
eyes. They were very angry, but as 
most of the persons in authority in the 
place were Christians, they tried to pro 
ceed quietly, and made a plan to take 
Rachel away and marry her, although 
she was only eight years old. Rachel 
determined to leave her home. Having 
made her little plan, she lay down and 
slept so long and soundly that the time 
of her intended flight passed by. Next 
night she thought she would stay awake, 
but sleep again overcame her. However, 
the Virgin Mary awoke her, and said, 
"Get up, Rachel, and go to Father 
Reynier." She did so, and ho took her 
to the Cistercian monastery called the 
Pare des Dames, near the city of Louvain. 
Hero she was christened by the name of 

&lt; atherine. Her parents complained to 
the Duke of JJrabant and to Pope Ho 
noring, saying their daughter was not of 
an age to take any important step with 
out their permission, and begging that 
she might bo restored to them until she 
should complete her twelfth year, when 
they promised that if she persisted in 
her wish to he ix Christian, they would 
give their consent. At the same time, 
they tri.-d hril.i-ry and every underhand 
means to obtain a decision in their favour, 
and them \\.-re not wanting wicked theo 
logians, who, for the sake of money, 
favoured the claim of the .Jews to have 



their child given back to them at least 
until her twelfth year. The duke in 
clined to give up the child, but was 
talked over by the Abbot Gauthier de 
Villars. The bishop ordered the nuns 
to give her up ; and the abbess, fearing 
to disobey him, said, "Catherine, your 
father wants to see you." Catherine 
flatly refused to go to him. The bishop 
continued to worry the nuns until the 
case was referred to the Archbishop of 
( ologuc, who decreed that they were not 
to be molested any more. The bishop 
then ordered Catherine to appear before 
his tribunal, that it might bo finally 
settled whether she had a true vocation 
for a Christian and religions life or not. 
The Jew engaged a clever advocate. 
Catherine relied solely on the protection 
of ( hrist and the Virgin Mary, who had 
again appeared to her, and promised to 
befriend her. The Abbot of Clairvaux 
interfered, as the head of the Cistercian 
Order, to which the Pope belonged; he 
threatened the advocate that ho would 
have him suspended from the exorcise of 
his profession for his impiety, hut the 
lawyer whispered, " I will not say a word 
against the Jewess. Let me but gain 
this money from the Jew." Accordingly, 
as soon as ho had the fee in his hand, ho 
refused to proceed with the case. Several 
learned clergymen asked questions of the 
young convert, and were convinced that 
her call was the work of the Holy Spirit. 
The bishop, however, continued to take 
the Jew s part from time to time for two 
years. In five years more Catherine 
took tlio veil in the same monastery, and 
spent the rest of her life there, distin 
guished by great holiness, and honoured 
after her death by miracles. Soon after 
she had taken the veil, a young man, who 
was related to her, asked for an inter 
view, 011 pretence that he also wished t&lt;&gt; 
bo converted. Catherine declined to see 
him, or address a single word to him. 

Analrcta, ii. 14.V&gt;. Hucelinus, Men. 
I: . AA.SS., May 4. Manrique, Anital* 
of tin- ( i#trrciaiin t took the story from the 
writings of Thomas Cantipratonsis and 
Ccsarius, both of whom knew Catherine, 
and heard the details from her own mouth. 

St. Catherine (3) of Siena, April W, 
V. L847 1380, Called at Siena, "Tho 



152 



ST. CATHERINE 



Beloved Sienese," " La Beata Popolana," 
"The Blessed Plebeian or daughter of 
the People," " The People s Catherine," 
" Our Lady of the Contrada d Oca," etc. ; 
sometimes called EUPHROSYNE, i.e. gracious 
or charming. The greatest woman saint 
of the Order of St. Dominic. Patron of 
Siena. 

Represented ( 1 ) wearing a crown of 
thorns, and a rosary, because she was a 
Dominican ; (2) with a heart in her 
hand ; (%) with St. Dominic, at the feet 
of the Virgin Mary, as if both were re 
ceiving the mission to promote the devo 
tion of the rosary. ST. MARY MAGDALENE 
DE PAZZI is also represented with a crown 
of thorns, but she has no rosary. 

One of the youngest of twenty-five 
children, and a twin, Catherine was the 
daughter of James Benincasa, a rich dyer 
of Siena, and Lapa Piagenti, his wife. 
They belonged to the middle class, the 
popolani, which then ruled the republic 
of Siena, and Benincasa at one time held 
the office of chief magistrate. They lived 
in the Contrada d Oca, where their house, 
called the Fullonica (the dye-works), is 
still shown. It is separated by a valley 
from the hill on which stands the Do 
minican church frequented all her life 
by Catherine, and visible from her house. 
When Catherine was six years old, she 
and her brother were one day sent to 
visit a married sister on the other side 
of the hill. On their way home, they 
had crossed the hill and the Valle Piatta, 
and were just turning into the street now 
called the Cortone, when Catherine s steps 
were arrested by a vision of Paradise. 
Looking up to the sky, she saw, just 
above the church of St. Dominic, a ma 
jestic throne, whence the Lord Jesus, in 
splendid robes, extended His hand to 
wards her in blessing. Beside Him stood 
SS. Peter, Paul, and John, and around 
them were angels and glorified souls. 
Soon her brother missed her from his 
side, and, looking back, saw her standing 
still in the middle of the road, gazing up 
into heaven. He called her, but she 
took no notice ; he went back, and asked 
her what she was doing, and as she did 
not seem to hear, he took her by the 
hand, to lead her away. She looked 
down at him for a moment, and when 



she again turned her eyes heavenward 
the vision was gone. The child wept 
disconsolately, and said, "Ah! if you 
could have seen what I saw, you would 
never have disturbed me." But the light 
she had seen through the gates of Para 
dise shone evermore in her soul. From 
that time forth she considered herself 
consecrated to God, and in every detail 
of her daily life she had a great fear of 
offending Him. With this in view, she 
prayed long and earnestly, set herself to 
root all self-love out of her own heart, 
and practised fasting and mortification 
of various sorts. Her great talent for 
converting and influencing others early 
manifested itself by her collecting chil 
dren around her, and persuading them 
to use the same sort of self-denial, and 
say certain prayers. When she was 
twelve years old her parents began to 
busy themselves about a suitable marriage 
for her ; but as she objected to every 
plan of the sort, they applied to a relation, 
who was a Dominican friar, and begged 
him to advise her to consent to their 
wishes. Instead of doing so, he recom 
mended her to cut off her hair, in token 
that all schemes for marriage were to be 
given up. Catherine s hair was very 
abundant, and of a golden brown^hue 
that has always been much admired in 
Italy, so that when Lapa found what her 
daughter had done she was very angry. 
This, added to her general neglect of 
dress and appearance, and her prolonged 
prayers and meditations, so displeased 
her family that they dismissed their 
servant, and made Catherine do all the 
work of the house ; at the same time, they 
deprived her of the much-valued privilege 
of having a room to herself. She laboured 
cheerfully to perform all the services re 
quired of her, carrying burdens up and 
down stairs lightly, and working in the 
kitchen so well and so quickly that she 
still had time for her devotions. Her 
father before long recognized her voca 
tion, and when she declared herself 
vowed to a religious life, he said no one 
should interfere with her pious observ 
ances, and he helped her liberally in her 
charities. A small room under the house 
was given up to her, and here, with a 
plank for a bed r.nd a stone for a pillow, 



ST. CATHERINE 



153 



she lial leisure and seclusion for her 
it. i vent prayers. Sho allowed herself 
less and less food and sleep. In after- 
years she said that the hardest struggle 
of her life had been to overcome the 
re and the necessity for sleep. She 
;al( d her mother to ask the Sisters 
of Penance (Third Order of St. Dominic), 
tin n commonly called .1/i nit -lln tr( cloaked 
sisters), to receive her into their number. 
They refused, on the ground that they 
had never taken young girls, and had no 
cloister to keep them in; they were al 
most all widows of ripe age, living each 
in her own home ; they had no vows, and 
in their liln-rty they daily renewed the 
offering of their lives. By-and-by 
Catherine caught small-pox of a virulent 
type, and while Lapa was trembling for 
the life of her child, the young saint 
besought her to apply again to the 3/in//- 
/ llnti j and beg them to accept her as a 
sister. They said they would receive 
her, provided she was not strikingly 
pretty. As she was now so disfigured 
as to be scarcely recognizable, there 
remained no obstacle, and as soon as 
possible on her recovery, sho was the 
first virgin to be clothed with the habit 
of the Sisters of Penance. Tommaseo 
says it was in I : . J ; .Mrs. Drane follows 
those authors who place it a little later. 
( atlierine loved her mantle, the symbol 
of her consecration ; she patched it when 
necessary, and took care of it as long as 
she lived. The next throe years sho 
spent in the strictest solitude and silence, 
communing with God, and learning to 
sill (due every natural inclination, some 
times afflicted by frightful temptations, 
often consoled by heavenly visions, which 
continued more or less during the whole 
of her wonderful life. At the end of 
tin iso three years sho was commanded 
by the Saviour to go and sit at table 
with her family; as she regretted the 
solitude in which her Lord had deigned 
to converse with her, lie told her she 
could have a cell within her heart, where 
il. would dwell, so that while she was 
ministering to oth&lt; is, sin: would still be 
alone with Him. This constant reali/a- 
tinn of the presence of Christ lifted her 
ul)ove all small considerations, all fears 
and difficulties, and gave her that clear 



discernment, that deep humility, ready 
courage and helpfulness, by which she 
earned the love and reverence of her 
contemporaries. It was about tho same 
time that sho had tho vision in which sho 
was married to the Lord, and sho ever 
afterwards saw His ring on her finger, 
although it was invisible to others. 

St. Catherine is remarkable for the many 
and difficult conversions sho effected. 
Her earnestness gave her wonderful in 
fluence over all whom she addressed. 
When she was preaching, those who 
could not come near enough to hear her 
words were stirred to contrition and 
conversion by her look. One of her 
converts was Nicolas do Toldo, a young 
knight of Perugia, who was condemned 
to death. Ho cursed his fate and his 
judges, and although as yet ho felt 
neither penitence nor resignation, ho sent 
to beg Catherine to visit him in prison, 
and by her affectionate remonstrances 
she brought him to a better way of feel 
ing. She persuaded him to make a 
general confession, and he received the 
Holy Communion for the first time in 
his life. He made her promise to stand 
beside him at the block. Sho met him 
on the scaffold, and, kneeling, prayed 
with and for him until the axe fell, when 
sho received his head in her hands, and 
saw his soul ascend to heaven. 

She was requested to try to convert 
Nanni di Ser Vanni, a very troublesome, 
worldly, and irreligious man. Finding 
all her exhortations fruitless, she ceased 
to speak, and began silently praying for 
him. He immediately repented of his 
sins, humbly made peace with his neigh 
bours, and embraced a penitential life. 
He gave St. Catherine his castle of P.el- 
caro, near Siena, which, in 1377, she 
converted into a convent. 

There was a poor leprous woman 
named Cecca in one of tho hospitals at 
Siena. The institution was so poor that 
it could hardly supply its inmates with 
tho necessaries of life. As sho grew 
worse, and became a source of danger as 
well as disgust to others, no one liked 
to attend upon her, and it was decided 
that sho should bo sent to tho lazaret 
outside the gates. Catherine heard of 
the case, and went to tho hospital. She 



154 



ST. CATHERINE 



kissed the poor sufferer wliftm others 
were afraid to touch, and said that if 
they would allow her to remain she 
would supply her with everything she 
required, and would come daily and 
minister to her with her own hands. 
Prom that day she came every morning 
and evening, dressed the wounds of the 
patient, and attended to all her wants 
with as much care and reverence as if 
it had been her own mother. At first 
Cecca was pleased, but she soon became 
very ungrateful and insolent, and reviled 
her charitable nurse with unseemly words. 
Catherine bore it all with her usual un 
ruffled sweetness, overcame the objec 
tions of her mother to the risk she ran, 
and assisted not only with her hands, 
but with prayers and exhortations until 
Cecca died. Meantime, this saintly nurse 
had caught leprosy in her hands. She 
washed the body and reverently carried 
it to the grave, laid it in, and covered it 
with earth. When this was done, the 
hands that had served God in the person 
of His afflicted one were cleansed of their 
leprosy, and were ever after very fair 
and delicate-looking. 

It was probably late in the year 1:57. ), 
after another such great victory over 
the rebellion of body and spirit against 
loathsome labours and slanderous in 
sinuations, that she had the blessed vision 
of the Saviour offering her two crowns. 
He bade her choose between one decked 
with precious stones and one made of 
very sharp thorns, and asked which would 
she have in this life that she might have 
the other in the life to come. " I choose 
in this life to be ever more conformed 
and made like to Thee, my Lord and 
Saviour, and cheerfully to bear crosses 
and thorns for Thy love, as Thou hast 
done for mine." Thus saying, she took 
from His hands the crown of thorns, 
placed it on her head, and pressed it 
down so forcibly that she felt lor a long 
time a sensible pain in her head from 
the pricking of the thorns. 

In L 374 the pestilence called in Eng 
land the "black death" raged in Tuscany, 
arid Catherine devoted herself to the care 
of the bodies and souls of the victims in 
her native city. Among the patients 
\?hosc lives she saved by exertions and 



prayers was her biographer Raymond of 
( upua. 

When her services were no longer 
urgently needed in Siena, the people of 
Pisa sent for her. There she healed 
many and converted such numbers that 
Pope Gregory XL, who was then at 
Avignon, commissioned three Dominican 
friars, of whom Raymond was one, to 
hear the confessions of Catherine s con 
verts. They were occupied day and 
night in shriving penitents, many of 
whom had never confessed before. It 
was at Pisa, in the chapel of St. Chris 
tina, that Catherine received the stigmata 
while praying before the crucifix painted 
by Guinta Pisano in 12(30. 

Her sanctity, charity, and discretion 
were now so well known as to procure 
for her a tradesman s daughter, without 
health, wealth, beauty, or ambition an 
influence in the ecclesiastical and politi 
cal world, which has often been bought 
too dearly or sought in vain by queens 
and princesses. One use she made of it 
was to preach a Crusade against the 
Turks. But she. saw that the discords 
at home must first be healed. Florence 
was in open revolt against the Church, 
and in 1374 the Pope laid the city under 
an interdict. The people of Florence 
sent for Catherine, and, after fully in-\ 
structing her in the case from their point 
of view, appointed her ambassador ex 
traordinary to go to Avignon and effect 
a reconciliation with the Pope. He 
received her with the greatest respect, 
but she did not succeed in concluding a 
solid peace. However, she took advantage 
of her visit to His Holiness to urge him 
to go to Rome, where, for lack of a ruler, 
anarchy and great misery prevailed, and 
grew daily worse. Many writers have 
asserted that the return of the Popes 
from Avignon to Rome was brought about 
by Catherine, but Gregory XI. had 
already perceived that it was his duty 
to take this step, and had resolved to do 
it. She encouraged him in his pious 
intention, and adjured him not to be 
turned from it by any difficulty, nor to 
listen to the persuasions of those whose 
interest it was to keep him away from 
the holy city. 

After three months at Avignon, she 



ST. CATHERINE 



went back to Siena, and resumed her life 
of charity and devotion. The Pope at 
the same time made the long-deferred 
journey to Rome. Soon afterwards ho 
desired her to go to Florence, whero she 
lived for some time amid daily crimes, 
riots, and confiscations. During this 
IH riod there occurred an insurrection of 
the people, chiefly directed against the 
( i nulphs. The houses of some of Cathe- 
rinc s friends wore sacked and burnt. 
A mob of some of the lowest of the 
populace suddenly took the fancy to 
blame ( atherine as the author of all 
their misfortunes. They cried out, " Let 
us take Catherine and burn her ; let us 
cut that wicked woman in pieces." 

Those who had given her hospitality 
were afraid, and some of her friends 
tried to get her away secretly from the 
house where she was living. As she 
was praying in the garden, she heard 
the cries of the rioters, and went joyfully 
forward. The first man she met was a 
furious ruffian, brandishing a sword and 
shouting, Where is Catherine?" She 
knelt down before him and said quietly, 
"I am Catherine. Do to mo whatever 
God may permit. 1 The man was em 
barrassed, and could only adjure her to 
fly. She said, "Why should I fly ? 
Where would you have me go? I ask 
nothing better than to be sacrificed for 
&lt;i&gt;d siiid the Church, so if you are going 
to kill me, I will not resist." The man 
and his followers withdrew in confusion. 
This happened in 1:178. On the death 
of Gregory XI., in the same year, began 
the Great Schism. Catherine considered 
Urban VI. duly elected, and influenced 
the Florentines to como to terms with 
him and to reject the claims of the anti- 
popo Clement VII. She wrote, however, 
to Urban, exhorting him to restrain a 
temper that made him so many enemies, 
and tt:n&lt;lr&lt;l to perpetuate the scandal of 
tin- schism. He took her advice in good 
part, and sent for her to Home. She 
went iln re \vith her mother and several 
of her fri&lt; mis. The Pope proposed to 
send her with Si. &lt; Mm KINK OF SWKIM:N, 
to la-ing &lt;&gt;v. r to his party Joan, queen 
of Sicily. &lt; atherino of Siena was eager 
to go, but the project was set aside. 
Catherine, however, helped to keep Urban 



on the throne by writing to Queen Joan, 
to the King of France, the King of 
Hungary, and other personages, entreat 
ing them to return to their righful master. 
While she was working in the cause of 
the Church, she died at Koine, i:S, at 
the age of thirty-three, and was buried 
in the church of the Minerva. 

She was canonized by Pius II. in 
1 MI. Her house in the Coutrada d Oca, 
at Siena, is still shown with reverent 
love, and many pilgrims resort to the 
little chapel attached to it, and delight 
to see the stone that served her for a 
pillow, her veil, and other mementoes of 
this holy woman. 

It is counted for righteousness to 
some of the saints that they never 
looked anybody in the face ; Catherine, 
on the other hand, looked straight at 
any one she spoke to. Her countenance 
was frank, her eyes very bright, her 
chin and jaw very strong and somewhat 
prominent. She had considerable mus 
cular strength and immense energy, but 
during the greater part of her life she 
suffered from a complaint of the stomach, 
which made it impossible for her to eat 
without suffering great pain and sick 
ness. But neither pain nor weariness 
ever prevented her being on the alert to 
seize any opportunity of winning a soul 
to God or doing any corporal act of 
mercy. She would go as simply and 
readily to a royal palace or a plague- 
infested slum, to meet a friendly depu 
tation or a hostile mob. During the 
last year of her life she wont with 
unflagging energy about the streets of 
Home, so emaciated that she looked like 
one who had returned from the grave. 

She comes into contemporary history 
as a quite exceptional and important 
personage. She was a mediator not only 
between Florence and the Pope, but also 
between Itomo and Venice, and betw&lt; en 
Venice and Hungary. Families who 
cherished hereditary feuds as points of 
honour, and regarded the vendetta as a 
duty, were reconciled by her. 

Niccolo Tommaseo publishes ."7:J of 

her letters. Among these are a do/-n 

rogory XI. and nine to Urban VI. ; 

otln-rs are to the King of France, the 

King of Hungary, the Queen of Naples, 



156 



ST. CATHERINE 



Sir John Hawkwood, and otli^r condot- 
tieri, the " Eight of War, 5 bishops, nuns, 
citizens. 

Her reproofs were wonderfully gentle 
and respectful, yet forcible and undis 
guised. She was severe towards the 
clergy, "having her eye," says Toru- 
maseo, "on a Church higher than the 
Vatican, the universal Church built in 
the Word of God." She says that " self- 
love has poisoned the whole world and 
the mystic body of the Church." She 
speaks of the immoral and neglectful 
chief pastors as " lepers puffed up with 
pride, insatiable in grubbing up the 
riches and delights of the world, which 
are the death of the soul." She wrote 
to two priests who had an inveterate 
quarrel, " Has the earth not yet opened 
and swallowed you up ? " In one of 
her letters to Gregory she calls herself, 
"Your unworthy daughter Catarina, 
servant and slave," etc., and winds up, 
"Pardon my ignorance, and may the 
love and grief that make me say these 
things excuse me to your benignity. 
Give me your blessing. Eemain in the 
holy and sweet love of God." 

Besides her letters, she was the author 
of a book in the form of a dialogue 
between God and the soul, and of several 
poems. It was not until she was much 
over twenty that she learnt to read, and 
writing never became easy to her. She 
dictated her letters to one or other of 
her disciples, who were proud to act as 
her amanuenses. Yet Italian writers 
rank her with Petrarch and Boccaccio, 
as one of the makers of the Lingua 
Toscana, which became modern Italian. 
She had a clear head, and could dictate 
to her secretaries three letters at once, 
addressed to three different important 
personages. 

Her name is in the Hainan Mar tyro- 
logy ; she appears in every collection 
of Lives of Saints, and every history of 
her time. Her secretaries, Stephen 
Maconi and Raymond of Capua wrote 
their recollections of her. More than 
forty Lives of this saint have been 
written in various languages. There 
are two very interesting modern English 
biographies of Catherine one by Mrs. 
Drano, a Roman Catholic, the other by 



Mrs. Josephine Butler, a Protestant. I 
have drawn largely from both and from 
Tommaseo. Le Letlere di S. Catcrina 
fla Siena . . . con procmio e note, etc., 
Florence, 1 860 ; Mrs. Jameson, Sacred 
and Legendary Art and Legends of the 
Monastic Orders; and the Contemporary 
Ervicw, March, 1883, "Siena," by S. J. 
Capper. 

St. Catherine (4) of Sweden, June 
25,|Maroh22,f 1380, Princess. Abbess. 
Invoked for safe delivery by pregnant 
women. 

Represented with a stag by her side. 

Catherine was second daughter and 
fourth child of Fulk or Wulf Gudmars- 
son and ST. BRIGID (10 j. Her education 
was entrusted to a holy abbess of Ris- 
berg, in Nericia. Her parents married 
her to Eggard Lydersson de Kyren, a 
devout soldier. They lived together in 
the greatest harmony and affection, 
under a vow of perpetual celibacy, con 
firmed by sacraments. Her brother, 
Charles Ulfsson, a soldier, councillor, 
and lagman of Nericia, opposed her 
piety, and was very angry because she 
converted his wife to wear very plain 
and old-fashioned clothes, instead of 
such as were then worn by ladies of 
their rank in Sweden. 

In 1344, soon after Catherine s mar 
riage, her father died and was buried 
in the monastery of Alvastro. His 
widow Brigid, by Divine direction, went 
to Rome. Catherine wished ardently 
to go to Rome too. Her husband would 
have given her leave to do so, but 
her brother Charles wrote, threatening 
to kill him if he allowed Catherine to 
leave the country. Eggard happened 
to be out when the letter arrived, and 
Catherine opened it. She appealed to 
her uncle Israel Birger, lagman of Up 
land, who encouraged her to go. Accord 
ingly, she went with two Swedish ladies 
and Gustav Thunason, who seems to 
have been her uncle by marriage. They 
arrived in Rome in August, i:&gt;."&gt;t&gt;. 
Brigid was then at Bologna, whore she 
went by the guidance of Christ to reform 
the abbot and monks of Parpensi. 
Meantime, Catherine sought her anxi 
ously in Rome for eight days. At the 
same time, Peter Olaf, Brigid s spiritual 



ST. rATIIKRIXK 



157 



father, was seized with a great longing 
to go back to Rome. His mind was in 
a state of restless excitement ; ho could 
neither eat nor sleep, feeling that some 
thing important demanded their imme 
diate return. So he sot off in advance 
of the rest of the party, and no sooner 
arrived at St. Peter s Church than he 
saw Catherine. Ho took her to her 
mother at Bologna, where she was 
received by the reformed abbot and 
brethren with great devotion and joy. 
They then went back to Rome. Catherine 
visited the stations and the holiest 
places, and after a few weeks sho pur 
posed to return to Sweden. Her mother 
begged her not to leave, and Catherine 
yielded, saying that in order to stay 
with her, sho would renounce her 
country, and even her husband, whom 
sho loved more than her life. Brigid, 
who had pined and prayed for a com 
panion, was now told by Christ that this 
was the companion Ho had promised 
her. Together they visited the sick and 
relieved the poor, as Brigid, by her 
example, had taught Catherine to do in 
her childhood. Catherine s beauty, 
wisdom, and kindness soon made her 
very popular. Her extreme fairness and 
bright colouring were uncommon in 
Italy, and her comeliness was the more 
conspicuous from her unusual height. 
She cared so little for fashion or splen 
dour that sho wore ragged old clothes. 
With her mother s permission, sho 
accompanied some of the noblest ladies 
of Rome on an excursion outside the 
walls. They were tempted by some 
beautiful grapes that hung over the wall 
of a vineyard. The other ladies asked 
Catherine, as the tallest of tho party, to 
try to reach them and pick ono of tho 
bunches. When she stretched up her 
arms, her cloak foil back, and sho 
showed her sleeves, patched and ragged ; 
but they looked to her friends like 
hyacinth and purple, and they said, 
" Oh, Lady Catherine, what magnificent 
sleeves ! Who would have thought you 
wore such splendid clothes ! " It was 
tho same with her straw bed; a pious 
friend who came to see her when she 
was ill, thought sho was lying on a 
sumptuous couch, with coverings of scar 



let and gold. Once when Brigid prayed 
for graco to love Christ more, the Virgin 
M-iry advised her to wear an old petti 
coat of Catherine s, who loved old better 
than now, and serge better than silk. 
A woman who was Catherine s maid for 
five years, and afterwards a nun at 
Wadstein, testified that Catherine had 
never said an angry or impatient word. 

After Catherine had promised to stay 
in Rome, she became homesick, and 
longed to see her own country, her own 
house, and her husband. She com 
plained to her mother of these feelings. 
Brigid sent for her confessor. They 
agreed that scourging was the only thing 
to expel tho temptation to regret. While 
Catherine was undergoing this discipline, 
sho said to tho priest, " Go on, strike 
harder ; you have not reached the hard 
ness of my heart." At last her sorrow 
ful countenance cleared, and with a 
joyful accent she said, " Now I feel my 
heart changed." 

Tho Pope being at Avignon, many 
sons of Belial infested tho streets and 
public places of Rome, and annoyed 
peaceable citizens and respectable women 
by their insolence and violence to such 
an extent that they could not visit the 
stations and indulgences. Young women 
in particular were not safe. Catherine 
was forbidden by her mother to go out 
without a numerous suite. For several 
days she stayed in the house with her 
maids, while her mother wont to tho 
indulgences, until sho began to say to 
herself, "I lead a miserable life here, 
sitting brutally at home, while others go 
and feed their souls at the services. My 
brothers and sisters in my own country 
can serve God in peace." She fell into 
low spirits, and soon had a dream which 
depressed her still more. As her mother 
saw her weeping, sho asked what was 
tho matter. Catherine told her that sho 
dreamt sho was surrounded with fire, 
and could not get away. Sho saw tho 
Virgin Mary, and cried out to her for 
h.-Ip. Tho Blessed Virgin replied, 
" How can I help you while you cherish 
a sinful longing to return home ? " Her 
mother reasoned with her, and they 
prayed that sho might have grace to 
k p her good resolutions. 



158 



ST. CATHERINE 



She was about twenty, and had been 
more than a year in Rome* when her 
husband died. Many suitors speedily 
applied for the hand of the beautiful 
young widow. Once on a festival, when 
St. Brigid was engaged elsewhere, 
Catherine went to the church of St. 
Sebastian outside the walls, to obtain 
indulgences. A certain count, with a 
numerous retinue, hid among the vine 
yards through which she had to pass ; 
he ordered his servants to be ready to 
seize her the moment he should give 
the signal. A stag appeared, and while 
they were all looking at it Catherine 
passed safely by unnoticed. Brigid 
knew of it by revelation, and from that 
day Catherine never dared to go openly 
to the stations outside the walls, nor 
even about the streets, but frequented 
the nearest church. At last, one even 
ing, Brigid said, " To-morrow is the 
feast of St. Lawrence ; we will go 
together to his church." Catherine was 
afraid, but her mother was confident 
that they would be protected by God 
and St. Lawrence. In the morning, 
when they went out, they fortified them 
selves five times "with the sign of the 
cross, and commended themselves to the 
protection of the five wounds and of St. 
Lawrence, and so got safe to church. 
The count who had annoyed them was 
hiding about on the road before it was 
light, hoping to waylay them. When 
the sun had risen, and was high in the 
heavens, one of the servants, being very 
tired, said, "Master, why are we waiting 
here ? " " To catch that lady for whom 
we watched in vain before." " She 
passed by hours ago, and is in the 
church." " But," said the count, " it 
is not yet day." " On the contrary," 
said the man, " the sun is high ! " Then 
the count became aware that he had been 
struck blind for his temerity. He bade 
his people lead him to the church and 
inquire for the Swedish ladies. When 
they were found, he fell at their feet 
and confessed his fault. His sight was 
restored by their prayers. 

Once when Catherine was praying 
before the altar of St. John, in the 
church of St. Peter, a pilgrim stood 
beside her and desired her prayers for a 



woman of Nericia. " Who are you ? " 
asked Catherine. "A pilgrim from 
Sweden." Catherine courteously invited 
her to come to her mother s house. Tho 
stranger excused herself, saying she had 
not time to stay, but again urged Cathe 
rine to pray earnestly for the soul of her 
countrywoman, adding, " You will soon 
hear news from home, and receive 
valuable help from the Norse woman, 
and she will place a crown of gold on 
your heads." Therewith she disappeared. 
When Catherine questioned her com 
panions, they said they had heard her 
talking, but had seen no one. Next day 
came the news that Guda, the wife of 
Charles, was dead, and in due time a 
friend brought her will and the gold 
crown which, according to the custom of 
her country, ,she always wore. The 
proceeds of its sale provided for the 
household of these two saintly women 
for a whole year. They lived together 
for twenty-five years in Rome, and then 
went to Jerusalem. While there, Brigid 
was taken ill. She lived to get back to 
Rome, but died soon after her arrival, in 
1373. By her own wish she was buried 
first at the monastery of Parnisperna, 
and was translated the same year to her 
own monastery of Wadstein. Catherine 
made all the arrangements, and con 
ducted the funeral party. One of the 
difficulties of the journey was the law 
lessness of the Crucifers, a military 
religious order who had become corrupt. 
Miracles accompanied the cortet/r all the 
way. They sailed from Dantzig, landed 
at Osgocia, and proceeded to Suder- 
copensem, where a great crowd met 
them. Nobles and clergy, rich and 
poor, men and women, accompanied 
them to Wadstein, with all the relics 
that had been given by the queen of 
Naples and other great personages, to 
the new monastery. At Lincopen, 
Catherine was well received, and the 
whole population attended a grand func 
tion in the cathedral. They arrived at 
Wadstein, July 4. Among the nuns 
was Brigid s granddaughter, Ingigerda, 
afterward s abbess. Catherine gave her 
pious advice, and told her that both tho 
detractor and the listener carry the devil 
in their tongues. She therefore prayed 



B. CATHKIMXK 



159 



that God would avert from the Brigit- 
tines the pestiferous bite of detraction. 

In accordance with the wishes of the 
whole community, Catherine went to 
Rome to procure the canonization of her 
mother. She set off in Easter week, 
between April 22 and 2i , I . 17 ."&gt;, and 
travelled to that city. She also went to 
Naples to collect evidence about her 
mother s miracles. Gregory XL, Urban 
VI., the magnates of Sweden, and all 
the grandees and cardinals who had 
known Brigid in Rome, favoured her 
&lt; -Hurts. But in those troubled times 
there were so many affairs in the eccle 
siastical world more pressing than the 
canonization of the noble Swede, that it 
could not be carried on at once, and 
Catherine saw that it must be left until 
the future. Accordingly, she decided 
to return home. All the way she was 
treated as a person of great sanctity, and 
her progress was again marked by 
miracles. She was taken ill when she 
left Rome, and gradually became worse. 
She arrived at Wadstein in July, I:SM, 
and died March 24, 1381. She could 
not take the last sacraments because of 
the state of her stomach, and could not 
speak, but she silently prayed, and made 
an act of devotion to the sacrament, and 
so departed. Instantly a wonderfully 
bright star appeared above the house, 
and remained there, hanging like a flame 
over the bier, and, as soon as she was 
buried, it disappeared. To her funeral 
came all the bishops and abbots of 
len, Norway, and Denmark, also 
Eric, son of Albert, king of Sweden, and 
many barons. 

Catherine wrought miracles. She 
twice cured servants who had dangerous 
foils one from a cart, and one from the 
top of the house at Wadstein. A woman 
who had had seven dead children begged 
her help, as she was expecting another, 
:md feared it would also bo born dead. 
Catherine prayed for her, gave her a 
piece of a dress that Urigid had worn, 
tuld her to keep it about her constantly 
until her confinement, and promised to 
come if she would send f,, r her as soon 
as she was taken ill. Accordingly, she 
went at the critieil time, and prayed 
with the mother until she was delivered 



of a living daughter, who was called 
Brigid in recognition of the assistance 
of the two holy women. 

For about a hundred years after her 
death her festival was kept on March 23 
in Poland and Sweden. As it often fell 
in Holy Week, Leo X., in Iol2, changed 
it to June 2."&gt;. 

She compiled a devotional book called 
Si -linna Truest ( Consolation of the Soul) ; 
it is written on vellum. 

R.M., March 22. AA.SS. Fant and 
Annerstet, Script. Rerum Succicarum 
M.&gt;lt i -/&gt;/, iii. 244, etc. Butler. Bail- 
let. Villegas. Mrs. Jameson. Cahier. 

B. Catherine ( ." ) Colombini, Oct. 
2. f 1.5S7. First nun of the Order 
af Jesuates of St. Jerome, and founder 
of their first convent at Valpiatta. 

When, about l. Wo, St. John Colom 
bini of Siena had founded the Order of 
Apostolic Clerks or Jesuates of St. 
Jerome for men, he wished to establish 
a congregation of women to serve God 
in poverty as great as that he imposed 
on his disciples. Ho looked around for 
a pious woman to begin the undertaking, 
and chose his cousin Catherine, daughter 
of Thomas Colombini, a knight of the 
Order of the Holy Virgin Mother of 
God, popularly called the Jovial Bro 
thers, because they were married and 
lived in considerable splendour. Cathe 
rine was willing to be a virgin nun, but, 
accustomed to wealth, she did not like 
the idea of poverty, privation, and beg 
ging barefooted from door to door. 
However, St. John Columbini soon 
persuaded her to follow his example. 
She began by giving away all she had, 
and making herself a plain coarse serge 
gown. She was joined by several widows- 
and single-women, who had been much 
impressed by his preaching. He gave 
them the habit of his order, with the 
addition of a white veil. They lived m 
the house of Catherine, and when, about 
I -"S she built the convent of Valpiatta, 
they chose her for their superior. They 
lived by the work of their hands, and 
admitted no member who had not first 
divest .1 herself of all her worldly goods. 
( uthorine set an example of the utmost 
humility, asceticism, and all other 
virtues for twenty-two years, and died 



160 



B. CATHERINE 



Oct. 20, 1387. Helyot, Ordv* M&lt;maa- 
tiques, part iii. chap. ,"&gt;."&gt;, ;&gt;* &gt;; Drane, 
Catherine &lt;&gt;f Sienna. 

B. Catherine ( &gt; Carreria, Aug. 1, 
of Mantua, O.S.D. Michele Pio, the 
historian of the Dominican Saints, says 
that at the age of forty-two, after a very 
pious life, she shut herself up in a narrow- 
cell, or rather between two walls, and 
never came out for thirty- eight years, to 
the great admiration of all good people. 
She was buried near the spot. When 
the cathedral of Mantua was built on 
the ground where her cell and grave 
had been, her body was placed in a 
handsome tomb in the chapel of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary in the cathedral. 
An inscription setting forth her sanctity, 
and telling that she was of the Third 
order of Preachers, was seen there by 
Serafino Razzi, another historian of the 
Order, but the date of her death is un 
known. AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Catherine (7), Nov. 20, V. of 
Tartary. "f 1414. Carried captive to 
Naples, and presented by the queen to 
ST. CATHERINE (4), who gave her her 
own name in baptism, and eventually 
took her to Wadstein. She lived there 
as a Brigittine nun until her death. 
Catilburnus, a holy priest, saw her soul 
carried to heaven in the form of a very 
bright star ; at the same time it was 
revealed to him that she was the daughter 
of a prince of Tartary. Vastovius, Vitis 
Aquilonia. Gynecseum. 

B. Catherine (sj Mancini, MARY 
(54) MANCINI. 

St. Catherine ( ), March t, of Bo 
logna. 14i:;-14ti:{. O.S.F. Abbess, 
painter, and author. Patron of artists 
and of the Academy of Painters at Bo 
logna. Only child of John de Vigri, 
or Vegri, a member of one of the prin 
cipal families of Ferrara ; it became ex 
tinct in ln ( .. Her mother was Benvenuta 
Mammolini. John being at Padua in 
the autumn of 1 4 1 :5, Benvenuta went to 
stay with her own relations at Bologna 
for her confinement, and there Catherine 
was born, Sept. 8. When she was nine 
or ten years old, she was placed at the 
court of the Marquis of Ferrara, and 
educated with his daughter, the Princess 
Margaret of Este. It was during her 



residence there that the tragedy occurred 
which Byron has described in his poem 
"Parisina." This may have deepened 
her mistrust of worldly life, and accen 
tuated her inclination for that of the 
cloister. She placed herself under the 
care of a devout woman named Lucia 
Mascheroni, who had already edified all 
Ferrara by her virtuous training of many 
secular young women. About this time 
Lucia, with all her pupils, went to live 
in a house which had been partly built 
for a monastery, but had never been 
finished. At first they followed the rule 
of St. Augustine, without any vow of 
seclusion. Here Catherine lived for 
fifteen or sixteen years ; here she endured 
those horrible struggles with the devil, 
and obtained those graces and heavenly 
visions which are described in her book, 
Spiritual Combats. In 14:52, when Lucia 
and her disciples adopted the rule of ST. 
CLARA, the convents of Assisi and Mantua 
were the only communities of that order. 
The life was so ascetic that few women 
were able to endure it : some died, and 
nearly all were more or less dangerously 
ill. Pope Eugenius IV., in 1446, modi 
fied their austerities, authorizing the 
nuns, among other indulgences, to wear 
wooden sandals and woollen socks ; their 
fasts also were to be less rigorous. 

In 145(3 Catherine was chosen superior 
of fifteen or, by some accounts, twenty- 
three of her companions to go and settle 
in the new convent of Corpo di Cristo, 
at Bologna, where she established the 
rule of St. Clara in its original severity. 
Two years later, Julius II. permitted 
her to take her mother into the convent 
to give her the attention her ago and 
blindness required. Catherine resigned 
the government of the convent in 14i&gt;o, 
but was reappointed the following year, 
and remained in office until her death, 
March &lt;J, 14G3. Nineteen days after 
wards her body was disinterred and found 
warm, and with a look of youth and 
freshness it had not worn of late years. 
It was set up in the choir for the vene 
ration of the public, and there worked 
miracles. The people of Bologna revered 
her as a saint from that time. Her canoni 
zation took place about two hundred 
years later. 



ST. C ATHKIIINI-: 



101 



In her convent of Corpo di Cristo aro 
preserved several miuiatures painted by 
her with great care and delicacy. ( )no pic 
ture of the Infant Christ her favourite 
subject used to be sent to sick persons 
to cure them of whatsoever disease they 
had. She is said to have been a pupil 
of Lippo Dalnmsio. In the Pinacotcca 
at Bologna is a small picture on wood, 
of ST. UUSULA, standing, and gathering 
her kneeling companions under In r 
mantle. It is signed " Cat&lt; ////" 1 /////. 
1 LM.V It was given to the Academy of 
Fine Arts by Count Charles Harescalchi. 
Baruffaldi says his most treasured pos- 
n was the daily Psalter Catherine 
used and read ; it was written on parch 
ment. In tin- margin of the first page 
was the Bambino in swaddling-bands, 
very minutely drawn and most beauti 
fully painted in pure and brilliant colour 
ing. After his time it became one of 
the treasures of the cathedral at Ferrara. 
One book was undoubtedly written by 
this saint ; it is entitled, Libra ddle 
Ji&lt;itt&lt;i&lt;//ii- Xjiiritunli v. dcllc 8clt&lt;&gt;. arme per 
rle. Another book of revelations 
has been attributed to her. Some Latin 
verses, called "The llosary," aro said 
to have been dictated to her by the 
Saviour. Two portraits of her are still 
to be seen one by Zuccheri, formerly 
in the church of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, 
now in the ( asa Hercolani ; the other, 
and better painted, by Julio Morina, 
represents the vision she had of Christ 
and the Blessed Virgin with SS. Stephen 
and Lawrence. It is in the Pinacoteca. 
It.M. Her Life, by Grassetti, is in 
the Bollandist collection, and was trans 
lated into Knglish for the London Ora 
tory. Barotti, M mitrii: Ixtorichr. di 
L tt i-nt i Ferrarcri. Ticozzi, Dizumario 
&lt;//// .1 /!// / / /// , *tc. Amorini, Vite de* 
I Bokgneri. Baruffaldi, Pittori 
I - ."Mr-, - ameson, Let/ends of the 
M&lt; ii&lt;mti&lt;- &lt; )r&lt;L n. 

B. Catherine ( m) Morigia, April 

. of 1 allanxa. f 147H. Founder 
and first abbess of the nuns of St. Am 
brose ad Nemus, and of the convent of 
Santa ."Maria del Monte, at Varasio. 
Born at Pallanza, a little town on Lake 
ttaggiore. &lt; n the appearance of the 
plague there, in 1 :;;, her father, mother, 



and twelve children fled to Ugovia, 
where they all died of it except ( atherine. 
She was then consigned to the care of 
( atherine di Silenzo, a lady of rank and 
of great reputation for sanctity. After 
her death, Catherine lived for a short 
time with some pious women at Monte 
Varaiso, near Pallanza, and tended them 
during the plague, of which they all 
died. She afterwards had it herself, 
and was miraculously cured on her 
return to her native place. She then 
went back to Varasio, and was joined by 
B. JULIANA, B. BIVIA, and two others. 
After living in great piety and austerity 
for some years, they obtained permission 
to adopt the rule of St. Augustine, the 
dress of the monks of St. Ambrose ad 
Nemus, with the black veil, and to have 
a garden and cemetery attached to their 
retreat, which then became a regular 
convent. Each abbess was to be ap 
pointed for three years, but Catherine 
did not live to finish her term. Her 
body remained uncorrupt and flexible 
many years after death. Helyot, Hist. 
Or&lt;L Jfon., iv. chap. i&gt;. Her name is in 
the Calendar of the Order of St. Augus 
tine. AJl.M. 

B. Catherine Cll), O.S.D., nun in 
the convent of Monteregio, at Siena. 
fl4!S. Pio. 

St. Catherine H2), or CATTERINA 
FiEsrm AIM.KNO, March 2&lt;&gt;, Sept. 14, 15, 
March 22, of Genoa. 1447-i;&gt;lo. 

Represented holding a burning heart 
and a crucifix. 

For several centuries the Fieschi were 
counts of Lavagna, and among the most 
illustrious families in Italy. They wero 
vicars of the empire, and, with other 
privileges, enjoyed the right of coining 
money in the republic of Genoa. Popes 
Innocent IV. and Adrian V., as well as 
many cardinals and famous Genoese 
generals, were of this family. ( 1 athorine 
father was Giacomo Fieschi, viceroy of 
Naples, under Kene of Anjou, king of 
Sicily. From her infancy she was re 
markable for her gentle and submissive 
disposition, and from a very early ago 
for her piety and self-denial. At 
thirteen she wished to become a nun, 
but when she applied for admission at 
the convent of Our Lady of Grace, they 



162 



B. CATHERINE 



would not receive licr becaust she was 
too small aiid delicate. She then gave 
lip for the time her project of a religious 
life, to which her parents wero opposed, 
and at sixteen was given in marriage to 
Julian Adorno, a young nobleman, whose 
ambition, extravagance, and profligacy 
caused her much affliction. Her prayers 
for him, her patience and her example, 
at length converted him, and he died a 
penitent of the Third Order of St. 
Francis. When Catherine became a 
widow, after ten years of marriage, she 
resolved to dedicate herself to the service 
of God, and after long deliberation 
decided on choosing an active rather 
than a contemplative life, and devoted 
herself to the service of the sick in the 
great hospital of Genoa, where she lived 
many years as mother superior. She 
tended the sick with the greatest kind 
ness, and did not shrink from rendering 
them the most painful and revolting 
services. She extended her charity to 
all lepers and other indigent and suffer 
ing persons in the city, and employed fit 
agents to discover and relieve them. 
She died in her sixty-third year, Sept. 
14, 1510. Both during her married life 
and afterwards, she made it a rule never 
to excuse herself when blamed, and took 
for her motto a sentence from the Lord s 
Prayer, " Thy will be done on earth, as 
it is in heaven." 

She wrote several treatises, the chief 
of which are entitled respectively, " On 
Purgatory " and " A Dialogue ; " the 
subject of the latter is Divine love and 
the happiness it imparts to the devout 
soul. Baillet says that her writings 
wero never thoroughly approved by the 
Church a fact which delayed her ca 
nonization. Pope Benedict XIV . placed 
her name in the Roman Martyrohyy. 
li. (Jutli T/nd. Grnu&lt; nsi* lllustrutn, Genoa, 
liJSL , by Parpera the oratorian, contains 
an account of her doctrine and a pane 
gyric on her holy life. B.M. Sticker, 
in AA.SS., Sept. i:&gt;. Butler, Lin-a, 
Sept. 14. Baillet, Vies. 

B. Catherine ( i:i) of Genoa, one of 
seventy-two nuns who died in the odour 
of sanctity between 14;W and 171.~&gt;. 
They wero of the Order of St. Ambrose 
and St. Marcelline, commonly called th- 



Annunciation of Lombardy. Helyot, 
Oi fL Mon., iv. chap. in. 

B. Catherine C14) of Eacconigi, 
Sept. :&gt;. 14SG - l.~)47. :ird O.S.D. 
Catherine was the daughter of George 
Mattei, a locksmith of Piedmont. At 
the time of her birth her family were 
reduced to great poverty by a war be 
tween the Duke of Savoy and the Marquis 
of Saluzzo. She made her first acquaint 
ance with life in cold and penury, but 
heavenly gifts and graces were bestowed 
on her from her earliest childhood. She 
had visions of saints and angels, and 
commended herself especially to the 
guardianship of St. Stephen, because in 
the early Church he had the care of 
women who were in need of alms. While 
still a child, she received the Holy Ghost 
four times iu visible forms, namely, of a 
dove, rays of light, a cloud, and tongues 
of fire. On the last occasion she made 
her first confession, was absolved by a 
saint, and received the gift of knowing 
true from false visions. Between her 
sixth and twenty-sixth year Christ 
appeared to her three times, and married 
her with a different ring each time. He 
several times took her heart out of her 
body and put it back ; once He kept it 
forty-five days, during which she lived 
without a heart, and with a great open 
place in her side. She had the stigmata. 
She described the personal appearance 
of saints she had seen in visions. ST. 
AGNES ( 2 ), she said, was little and plump, 
with rosy cheeks and curly hair. 
Although poor, she was very charitable. 
She deemed it better to be without 
clothes than without charity. At 
thirteen she gave her chemise to Christ 
under the form of a beggar, and He gave 
her a beautiful white robe in its stead. 
ST. CATHKKI.NK (Mi of Siena, who had 
been dead more than a hundred years, 
appeared to her as a beggar. Devils 
persecuted her, disguised as men, beasts, 
birds, and corpses. She was defended 
against them and against sin by saints 
and angels. She was taken to purgatory, 
where she comforted the souls and felt 
the fire. She also visited heavon and 
hell, and recognized some of her friends 
in each of the three places. She released 
many souls from purgatory by her 



U. CATIIKKIXK 



103 



prayers, and by the saino means saved 
JUT native town from fire and storms. 
She fought and vanquished a devil who, 
under the form of a serpent, was carrying 
off a wicked woman. She released and 
converted the woman. She went great 
distances to help those to whom she 
could be useful. She was carried by 
angels from place to place ; she once 
went three hundred and twenty miles in 
four hours. From this miraculous 
I lower she was called by the peasants of 
Piedmont La Mnxc&lt;i \ &lt;&gt;. Sorceress] di 
Di. She died at Caramagna. 

Her life was written by Francesco 
Pico della Mirandola, count of Con- 
cordia ; he knew her well, and heard her 
relate many of her visions. He died 
before her, and his work was finished by 
Father IVter Martyr, of Garescio, who 
also knew her very well, and was only 
a mile from her at the time of her death. 

She has a double festival in the 
Martyrology of her order. . I.//..V. 
,n Siiiiita, published by the Fathers 
of the Oratory. Pio. ( astillo. 

B. Catherine (15; Tomas, April 1, 
Aug. !. { 1574. Canoness, O.S.A. 
1 &gt;a lighter of Jacob Tomas and Mar- 
quettu Gallart, honest peasants at Valde- 
inuza, iii Majorca. She was brought up 
to hard work in house and field. From 
her seriousness and contempt of pleasure, 
tin: neighbours gave her the nickname of 
I "t&gt; / i-itiij the little old woman. At seven- 
she entered the service of a noble 
family in Palnm, win TO she was taught 
ad ami embroider. Notwithstanding 
her great piety and extraordinary asce- 
ii-ism. lack of dowry made it very diffi 
cult for her to gain admittance to a 
.-lit. At last that of St. Mary 
Magdalene, of the Order of St. Augustine, 
consent d t receive her. She had ecs- 
. was attackt-d by the devil in 
visible shape, s!. iccoured and 

comforted |&gt;y divers saints, she talked 
with suuls in purgatory, prophesied future 
&lt;-v. nts, and wrought miracles. She was 
: d prim-ess of her convent, but im- 
ni -diati Iy r M-jned. On her death the 
inhabitants oi .Majorca honoured her as 
a saint for fifty years, wln-n a decree of 
Urban VIII. forhade the public worship 
ainis not recognized by the ( 1 huivh. 



An appeal was then made to Rome to 
have the worship of Catherine legalized. 
The process went on at intervals for 
many years, until the decree of her beati 
fication was promulgated by Pius VI. in 
I 7 .! . Her hat, thimble, and other relics 
are kept as sacred, and her body is pre 
served in a marble sarcophagus with a 
glass front, and shown by the nuns of 
her convent. Her name is in the Mar 
tyrology of her order, A.R.M., April 1. 
AJLJBS., Prxter., April :,. Bidwell, 
llnl -tirir Islands. 

St. Catherine ( 1 u) Cantona. t 
1 ." &lt; t, of the rule of St. Charles Borromeo. 
Represented holding a cross to which a 
nail is fastened. Guenebault. 

B. Catherine ( 1 7), or CATALINA CAR- 
]&gt;o\A,May 1 1, 12, IS, 21. 15111-1577 or 
157!. A recluse of the Order of our Lady 
of Mount Carmel. Daughter of Don 
Ramon, a member of the ducal house of 
Cardona, descended from the kings of 
Aragou. She had a vision of her father 
in purgatory; he told her his release 
would bo the fruit of her penance. She 
mortified and disciplined herself until 
she obtained his deliverance. The Prin 
cess of Salerno, a near relation, who took 
charge of her on her father s death, 
brought her to Spain, where ST. THERESA 
(7) was beginning her reform; and 
Catherine was moved to undertake the 
life of austerity, of which Theresa speaks 
with admiration. On the death of the 
princess of Salerno, Catherine governed 
the household of Ruy Gomez do Silva, 
prince of Eboli, and had under her care 
the Princes Don Carlos and Don Juan of 
Austria. Carlos she could not influence, 
but for Juan she always had a most tender 
all eetion. Ruy Gomez and his wife went 
to see an estate he had bought. Cat la -rim- 
bi-gged to accompany them. She did so, 
and from their house in Estrenn m. 
dressed as a man, she made her way to 
the desert of La Roda, where she spent 
many years in a small cave. Her only 
&lt; 1 1 1 1 1 i n g was very coarse sackcloth . She 
lived on herbs and roots, until a poor 
&gt;h plu rd supplied her with bread and 
meal. She used the discipline of a heavy 
chain for an hour and a half or two hours 
at a time. Sometimes she went half a 
mile on her knees to Mass in a monastery 



164 



ST. CATHERINE 



of the Mercenarians. The fame of her 
devotion spread to such a degree that 
she suffered much from the fatigue, 
interruption, and crowding caused by 
those who went to see her. There came 
a day when the whole plain was full of 
carriages. The friars of the neighbour 
ing monastery were compelled to raise 
her up on high, that she might give the 
crowd her blessing, and so get rid of 
them. She was so impressed by the 
sanctity of St. Teresa, and the impor 
tance of her reform, that, after eight years 
of solitude, she left her cave to found a 
monastery of Barefooted Carmelites. In 
ir&gt; 71 she went to Pastrana, where the 
Prince of Eboli and the Duke of Gandia 
had promised to found a monastery for 
her. She took the habit of a lay-brother, 
fearing that if she became a nun, she 
would be deprived of her solitude and 
extreme austerity. She had to go to 
Madrid on the business of the foundation. 
While there she continued to give her 
blessing to the people. A good old man 
did not understand it, and, somewhat 
scandalized, he told the nuncio that he 
had seen a Carmelite lay-brother in a 
carriage with ladies, giviug his blessing 
to the people like a bishop. The nuncio 
was very angry, but on the circumstances 
being explained, he left Catherine in 
peace. At Madrid and other places the 
people gave her funds, and in 1.572, 
when she had obtained the licence, she 
built a monastery over her cave. In a 
trance in that church, St. Theresa saw 
Catherine in glory, accompanied by 
angels ; Catherine told her not to grow 
faint, but to persevere with her founda 
tions. Another cave, containing a solid 
tomb, was made for her. There she 
lived five years, leaving it only to be 
present at the divine office. She died 
May 11, 1577. In 16&lt;&gt;;&gt; the monastery 
was moved to Villanueva de la Jara. 
The friars took with them the body of 
their founder, and three years later they 
laid it in a distinguished place in the 
church. 

St. Theresa calls her "the saintly 
Cardona " and " that holy woman." She 
is called " Saint " by some authors, and 
was so considered in her own country 
and community, both before and after 



her death, but is not canonized. P.P. 
St. Theresa, foundations. 

St. Catherine (is), or SANDRIVA DKI 
RICCI, Feb. 13. 1522-1589. :5rd O.S.D. 
Sometimes represented with a crown of 
thorns. Of an ancient family of Florence. 
She was christened Saudrina, and edu 
cated in the convent of Monticelli. In 
1 .Ml.") she took the name of Catherine, 
and became a novice in the convent of 
St. Vincent, at Prato. While very young 
she was appointed mistress of the novices, 
and at five-and-t \venty, prioress. 

This nunnery was built in K&gt;(&gt;2 by the 
Dominicans of Savonarola s Convent of 
St. Mark, in Florence. The nuns of 
Prato were distinguished not only for 
holiness, but for skill in the arts of 
painting, sculpture, and poetry. The 
Order of Preachers commonly called 
of St. Dominic were exempted from 
strict seclusion. 

Fra Angelo Diacceto, prior of the 
Minerva in Rome, had a great affection 
for his niece Catherine, and was present 
at her profession. He acted as a medium 
for the intense interest which existed be 
tween her and his friend Philip Neri, 
and consequently between the holy com 
munities of Dominicans at Prato and 
Rome. One of the chief ties between 
them was their ardent love and admira 
tion for Fra Girolamo Savonarola. Ca 
therine treasured relics of him, studied 
his writings, and in a serious illness, 
recommended herself to him, and was 
cured. Her eager desire for the refor 
mation of the Church in general, and of 
the everyday life of Rome, also appealed 
strongly to the heart of Philip. She 
used to say, " That poor city of Rome ! 
what sins are committed there ! What 
lives men live there ! " From corre 
spondence by letter there grew up in the 
hearts of these two saints a great desire 
to see each other; but Philip had resolved 
never to leave Rome, and Catherine was 
a cloistered nun at Prato, and not likely 
to travel. Yet they met in spirit, passed 
some time in holy converse, and each saw 
the face of the other as plainly as if they 
were together in the flesh. This incident 
is represented in a picture by Antonio 
Marini, and is mentioned in the bull of 
the canonization of Philip Xeri. There- 



U. CATHERINE 



10." 



remain? but one of their many letters: 
it is from Catherine to Philip. 

Such was her reputation for sanctity 
ami wisdom, that she was visited by many 
of the great men of the day, among whom 
three cardinals, afterwards popes, 
namely. Murcellus II., Clement VIII., 
and Leo XI. She was one of those 
nit &lt;li;i val saints who had tho stigmata. 
She had also a red mark on her linger, 
Bed by the ring with which she was 
usi &lt;1 to Christ. Many saints ap 
peared to her in her cell. She died 
after a long illness, Feb. 2, 1"&gt;S, and 
was canonized by Benedict XIV. in 
1744. 

/. . M. M&gt; li ni Scuntt) published by 
the Fathers of the Oratory. Capecelatro, 
Lift- ,,/ St. Pl .Hp Neri, ii. 2&lt;&gt;7, etc. 
1 1- T letters were edited by Cesare Guasti 
in l^ (i l. CiriHii Cattolica, series iv. 
vol. ll\ p. :;7". 

B. Catherine (!!&gt;) May &lt;&gt;. f i:&gt;9t&gt;. 
A Dominican nun in tho convent of the 
Mother of God at Seville, where she was 
m side sub-prioress at a very early age. 
&gt;h" imitated the virtues of the great ST. 
C.\niri;iNK Ci) OF SIENA, and had a 
special gift for reproving kindly and 
effectually. She was sent, with others, 
to the convent of Maria do Gracia, to 
instruct tho nuns; she was a great 
favourite with her pupils, and during 
h&lt; r various sojourns in that convent, was 
time times chosen prioress by them, 
l)ii t the superiors of the order annulled 
the elections, because they wanted her 
for work in other places. She was sent 
to reform the convent of Ubeda, to act 
as prioress to that of St. Florentina do 
Ecija, and to found that of Gibraleon. 
She took with her her dear friend, Sister 
INI; try &lt;&gt;f tho Cross, who was first prioress 
there, and died in l.V. ."&gt;. Catherine died 
&gt;n the eve of St. John the Evangelist, 
Dec.. ! ;, !:,! ;. AA.SS., Prsetcr. Ka- 
chack, l)niiii n ii a \nii-. 

B. Catherine &lt;- "&gt;, of Fingo, Sept. 
1&gt;, M. P L J. A widow, aged forty-eight, 
beheaded at Nagasaki, in Japan, on the 
same day as Spinola was burnt. It is 
said by I SIL -S that when her head was 
cut off it rebounded three times, pro 
nouncing each time the names Jesus and 
Mary, i ,S" Lro FKKITAS.) 



B. Catherine - L i , July r:, M. 1626, 

Wife of a poor labour. T named John 
Mino Tanaca. They were imprisoned 
for six months, and then condemned to 
death for lodging the missionary, Father 
Torres. John was burnt and Catherine 
beheaded at Nagasaki, in Japan. When 
his bonds were destroyed he walked 
through the fire to salute John Naisen 
and his other fellow-martyrs. They all 
expired invoking the Lord Jesus. 
Authorities, same as for LUCY FUEITAS. 

B. Catherine (22), Protector of 
Canada. Her name among her own 
people was TKGAHKOUITA. H)")0-1G7H. 
A red Indian of the Iroquois tribe, born 
at Gandahouague or Gandehouhague 
( later, Cauhnawaga, a village in Mo 
hawk canon, New York state ). Left an 
orphan very young, and nearly blind 
from the effects of small-pox, she lived 
in the darkest corner of her aunt s cabin. 
As soon as she was able, she did all the 
hard work of the family. She first heard 
of Christianity from some missionaries 
who, travelling through the Iroquois 
territory, lodged in her uncle s wigwam. 
They were hospitably received, and 
Tegahkouita was ordered to wait upon 
them. The fervour and abstraction with 
which they prayed inspired in her tho 
desire to join in their worship. They 
gave her what instruction they could in 
the short time of their stay in the 
village. Before long her relations 
thought it was time she should be 
married, and, without consulting her, 
they chose a young man, and he, accord 
ing to the custom of the nation, came 
into the cabin and sat down beside her. 
She had only to stay where she was to 
be considered by her tribe tho wife of 
this man, and this her uncle expected 
her to do. But instead she got up 
hastily and left the wigwam. Her 
friends were very angry, and abused and 
maltreated her, but she strongly objected 
to marriage. While they were still 
annoyed with her behaviour, a missionary 
named Father do Lambervillo came to 
tho village. All tho women were busy 
gathering in tho maize, and ho found it 
useless to attempt any preaching or 
public instruction, as no one could attend. 
Ho took tho opportunity to visit tho 



166 



B. CATHERINE 



Louses and talk to the aged and infirm, 
who could not come to the gatherings of 
the community. In one of the wigwams 
he found Tegahkouita, who was pre 
vented by a wound in her foot from going 
to the fields with the others. Ever since 
the first visit of the missionaries she had 
been longing to become a Christian, and 
now she frankly told Father Lamber- 
ville her wish. She said she would have 
great obstacles to overcome, but that 
they would not frighten her. He saw 
in her one chosen by God, but his ex 
perience among the Indians led him to 
take many precautions before admitting 
them to the sacrament of baptism. At 
last, at Easter, ] 070, he found no further 
cause for delay, and christened her by 
the name of Catherine. He was 
astonished to find in her so many saintly 
qualities. Those who were least dis 
posed to follow her example were struck 
by her holiness, and for a time treated 
her with great respect ; but by-and-by 
her modesty appeared to the young 
people of her village to be a reproacli to 
the libertine life they led. They ridi 
culed her, and threw stones at her on 
her way to church, while her uncle and 
aunt starved her and behaved very un 
kindly to her. At this time a number 
of converted Indians had withdrawn to 
the Prairie de la Magdeleine, and 
amongst these new settlers was a friend of 
Tegahkouita s, whose husband helped the 
missionaries assiduously. This young 
couple made a plan to take her to join 
them, but her uncle was greatly incensed 
at the depopulation of his part of the 
country, and tried to prevent any more 
of his people from leaving the place. 
In his absence the young man with a 
friend came on a pretended hunting 
expedition, and took her away with them. 
The uncle soon heard of it, and ran 
furiously after them, resolved to bring 
her back dead or alive. He overtook 
the two hunters, but they had hidden 
the young convert in the wood, and after 
some futile conversation he concluded 
that he had been misinformed. Catherine 
arrived in the Prairie de la Magdeleine 
in October, I (177. Her friends had no 
cabin of their own, but lodged with a 
fervent Christian named Anastasia, who 



devoted her life to the conversion and 
salvation of women, preparing them for 
baptism ; and here Catherine gave her 
self, without reserve, to God, and took 
giant strides in the path of holiness. 
She had not received her first Com 
munion, and it was the custom not to 
grant it to neophytes, but to prepare 
them by long trial. She expected to 
have to wait like the others, but her 
director soon discerned her fitness and 
her fervour, and granted her this privi 
lege, to her great comfort and to the 
edification of others. Her best friends 
urged her to marry, as it was until then 
unheard of that an Iroquois girl should 
remain unmarried. Even the mission 
aries had never suggested such a thing, 
but at last Catherine received permission 
to make a vow of virginity, and was the 
first of her nation who did so. The 
neophytes were declared by the other 
Iroquois to be enemies of their country, 
and they expected to be frightfully 
tortured should they fall alive into the 
hands of their compatriots. 

Her mortifications undermined her 
health, and she became very ill. After 
a long time of suffering she received 
" the holy oils " on the Wednesday before 
Easter, 1078, and she died the same 
afternoon, aged twenty- four, at the Sault 
St. Louis. Her exemplary life and holy 
death caused a great increase of fervour 
amongst the Iroquois of the Sault St. 
Louis. Immediately after her death her 
wasted features recovered their bloom. 
Her tomb was soon a famous resort for 
crowds of the faithful, who flocked there 
from all parts of Canada. Those who 
sought her intercession were singularly 
favoured, and miracles encouraged the 
general opinion which regarded and to 
this day regards her as the protectress 
of Canada. 

The inhabitants of several of the 
neighbouring parishes were in the habit 
of assembling at the Sault St. Louis to 
sing a Mass in her honour, although she 
had not been canonized. A new parish 
priest recently arrived from France 
refused to conform, fearing to authorize 
by his presence a public worship which 
the Church had not yet permitted. All 
his hearers said he would be signally 



ST. CECILIA 



16 



punished for slighting the saint, and 
that very clay ho fell dangerously ill. 
He understood the cause, and made a 
vow to follow the example of his pre 
decessors, whereupon he recovered. 
There were martyrs of both sexes in 
this persecution, but Tegahkouita is the 
only red Indian worshipped as a saint, 
and although she is not canonized, it was 
found impossible to prevent her being 
honoured and invoked as the patron of 
Canada. 

Charlevoix, Hiatoire H Description 
&lt;;. n, ral dc la Nouvrllc Fran 

St. Cattula, CATULI.A. 

St. Catula ( I , March 24, M. in 
Africa. AAJ3S. 

St. Catula &lt; 1 &gt;, May 7, M. in Africa. 
AAJ38. 

St. Catula ( X ), June 2t&gt;, M. at Home. 
M&lt;irt. of Itcichcnau. 

St. Catula (4), CASTULA (8). 

St. Catulla, CATALLA, or CATTULA, 
March : !. Matron in Paris. Buried 
&gt;t. Uenis and his companions, A.D. 272. 
Catulla walked beside St. Denis while 
he carried his head to the place of 
burial. Paul Lacroix, from a manuscript 
of the fourteenth century, in the Biblio- 
thejin; Xationale. AA.SS., Prsetcr. 
1 5nt ler. Ferrarius calls her " Virgin." 

St. Caw, Welsh. Mother of SS. 

CAIN. CWYI.LOG, GWEXAFWY, PKILLAN, 

TiiiiniKN, and several sons, all saints. 

. 280. 

St. Cazarie, CASABIA (1). 
St. Cebedrude, or CEBETKUDE, 

&lt; il.r.r.TlirnE. 

St. Cecilia ( 1 &gt;, Nov. 22 (OJKHLIAJ 

ChKi.v ), Y. M. 18n or 2: Jo. Patron of 
music, musicians, and musical instrumont- 
makers, and one of the four great patron 
esses of the Western Church. 

Represented 1 &gt; with a caldron : ( - ) 
with an orpin &lt;&gt;r other musical instru 
ment ; (8) witli si wreath of roses or 
green leaves; 4) with an attendant 
angel. 

St. Cecilia was a noble Roman lady, 
probably of the family of Cii cilii Maximi 
l- ;ui&gt;ti. Her parents wero secretly 
Christians, and brought her up piously. 
She always carried a copy of the Gospels 
concealed iu her clothes. She; cn:i 
hymns and played on all instruments, 



but finding none worthy to express her 
devotion, she invented the organ, and 
dedicated it to the service of God. Sin 
was married at sixteen to Valerian, whom 
she converted to Christianity. He de 
manded to see her guardian angel, and 
she sent him to St. Urban, who was con 
cealed in the catacombs on account of 
the persecution, and who completed the 
conversion of Valerian, and baptized 
him. Valerian, returning to his wife, 
heard celestial music, and, entering the 
room, saw an angel standing by her side, 
with two crowns of everlasting roses, 
which he placed on the heads of Valerian 
and Cecilia, telling Valerian, as the 
reward of his obedience to his wife s holy 
advice, that he might ask what ho 
would, and it should be granted. Vale 
rian asked the conversion of his brother 
Tibertins. This was promised, and was 
brought about by the persuasions of 
Cecilia. All three went about doing 
good, until they attracted the attention 
of the enemies of Christianity, when the 
two brothers wero thrown into prison. 
They converted their gaoler Maximus, 
who was put to death with them, and 
buried with them by St. Cecilia in the 
cemetery of St. Calixtus, on the Appian 
Way. 

Almachius, the prefect of Rome, con 
demned her to death, in the fear that 
her rank, wealth, and charity should 
promote the cause of Christianity. To 
spare the ignominy of public punishment, 
an executioner was sent to her house, a 
common act of courtesy towards persons 
of high rank under sentence of death. 
She was to be stifled in her bath. She 
suffered a whole day in the heat, but as 
it did not even injure her, the man tried 
to behead her. His hand, however, 
trembled so that when he had inflicted 
three strokes with his sword, as the law 
did not allow a fourth, he was obliged 
to leave her mortally wounded and 
bleeding. She prayed that she miu ht 
live until she had bequeathed her house 
and property to the Church. She lived 
thus for three days, receiving visits from 
the faithful, who eagerly collected her 
blood as a holy relic, while she conversed 
with St. Urban, and gave him her final 
directions. St. Cecilia s is the only 



168 



ST. CECILIA 



antique private bath existing tn Rome. 
The bath-room is now a chapel in the 
church of Santa Cecilia, in Trastevcre, 
and here are still seen the metal pipes 
for bringing in the water, a leaden con 
duit for letting it off, and the furnace 
underneath for heating the bath accord 
ing to the method then in use. At her 
request, Pope Urban, it is suid, dedicated 
the house as a church before her death. 
Around the original building a more 
stately church was erected by Pope 
Pascal I., when the bodies of SS. Cecilia, 
Valerian, and Tibertius were found in 
the cemetery now called by her name, 
and forming part of that of St. Calixtus. 
The body of St. Cecilia was wrapped in 
a cloth of gold, or, according to some 
accounts, a silken robe embroidered with 
gold, and had linen cloths at the feet, 
dipped in blood. In the same year the 
body of Urban was found in an old 
church near the Appian Way, and was 
translated to the church of St. Cecilia, 
which is still standing, but so modern 
ized as to be deprived of much of its 
interest. 

Her name is in the Canon of the Mass, 
in the oldest Martyrologies attributed to 
St. Jerome, in the Breviary and Missal 
of the church of Milan (4th century j, 
and the Sacramcntary of St. Grey or i/. 
Her legend is in every collection of Lives 
of the Saints. Her Acta are not authen 
tic, nor is there any very old authority 
for the story that she was a musician. 

R.M. Butler, Lives. Baillet, Vies. 
Smith and Wace, Diet. Christian J&gt;/&lt;&gt;&lt;/. 
Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art. 
Villegas. Leyycndario delle Sante Ver- 
yini. Bede. Hemans, Monuments. 

St. Cecilia (2), May :n, M. at Ge- 
rona, in Spain. AAJSS. 

St. Cecilia (8X M. : &gt;&lt;&gt;4. (See Vic- 

TOKIA OF AVITIXA. ) 

St. Cecilia (4), June 1, M. with ST. 

AUCEGA. 

St. Cecilia C&gt;;, May 8, M. at Con 
stantinople with St. Acacius. (See 
AGATHA ( !).) AA.SS. 

St. Cecilia ( 6), June 2. One of 227 
Roman martyrs commemorated together 
in the Martyrolooy of Si. Jerome. AA.SS. 

St. Cecilia (7;, or CKCIKIA, July s, 
M. at Sirminia, or Sirmia, in Pannonia. 



Mentioned in St. Jerome s Martyrolvgy. 
J. B. Seller, in AA.SS. 

St. Cecilia ( S &gt;, M. in Sardinia. 
Patron of Cagliari. Cahicr. 

St. Cecilia (t) companion of ST. 
VKSTLA, honoured in Spain. 

St. Cecilia M&lt;&gt;), GKGOHKUCA. 

SS. Cecilia (11) and Benedicta 
( l. Ji, Nov. 10. Abbesses of Swestrens. 
Bucclinus, from Trithemius. 

B. Cecilia (12;, Aug. 4, o ; with B. 
DIANA, June 1&lt;&gt;. O.S.D. 120 1-1 2 . HI. 
First Dominican nun. ( ailed the first 
plant of the Second Order, and the first 
born of St. Dominic. 

When, in 1217, St. Dominic went for 
the second time to Rome, Honorius III., 
desiring that the Dominicans should 
have a house there, gave him the church 
of St. Sixtus, and had a convent built 
adjoining it. At this time there were 
many nuns living in Rome, without 
" enclosure," and almost without regu 
larity some in small monasteries, and 
some in the houses of their families. 
Innocent III. ( 11H8-1216) had made 
several unsuccessful attempts to assemble 
them all in one house, under a uniform 
rule of seclusion. His successor, Hono 
rius III., instructed St. Dominic to bring 
about this reformation, and, at his re 
quest, appointed three cardinals to act 
with him. In order to remove some of 
the difficulties, St. Dominic offered to 
give up his new convent of San Sisto to 
the nuns, and to build a new one for his 
friars at St. Sabiua. The monastery of 
Sta. Maria, in Trasteverc, was the prin 
cipal one where the scandal had to be 
put down, and thither went the great 
preacher and his three colleagues, and 
exhorted the nuns with so much charity 
and eloquence that first the abbess and 
then all the nuns but one, volunteered 
to accept the stricter rule and obey the 
Pope. No sooner, however, had the 
ecclesiastics departed, than the parents 
and friends of the nuns came and re 
monstrated, and told them they were 
doing that in haste which they would 
repent at lifelong leisure, that their house 
was so ancient and honourable, their 
conduct so irreproachable, their privi 
leges so important, that they were by no 
means bound to accept new rules, which, 



ST. CECILIA 



169 



they known before they took tin- 
veil, would have deterred them from 
monastic life. Hearing all this from 
their natural advisers, the nuns thought 
their independence too precious to be 
renounced, so they determined not to 
submit. St. Dominic left them alone for 
a few days, during which he fasted and 
prayed and commended the cause to God. 
He then went back to St. Mary s, said 
Mass there, and afterwards addressed the 
nuns with that wonderful gentleness 
which no one could resist, asking them 
if they could repent of an ofter they had 
made to God, or refuse to give them 
selves up to Him with their whole heart 
and without reserve. The abbess and 
all the nuns renewed their former 
promise to him, and vowed to submit in 
all things to the Pope s wishes. They 
begged that Dominic himself would be 
their director, and give them his own 
rule. He agreed, and while the prepara 
tions for their transfer to St. Sixtus 
were in progress, he shut the gates, and 
forbade their friends and relations to 
come, with their worldly counsels, to 
shake the pious resolution of the nuns. 

Early in Lent, 1218, the abbess and 
Bomo of the nuns amongst them the 
novice ( ccilia settled down in the 
convent of St. Sixtus. St. Dominic gave 
them his rule and his habit. They were 
in the chapter house, discussing the 
tempor.il arrangements of the community 
with St. Dominic and the three cardinals, 
one of whom was Stephen of Fossa Nuova, 
cardinal-priest of the twelve apostles, 
when a man came running, in great 
distress, to Cardinal Stephen, to tell him 
that his nephew Napoleon had been 
thrown from his horse and killed on the 
spot. Stephen fell on Dominic s breast, 
nimble to speak or shed a tear. Dominic 
ordered the young man s body to be 
brought in, and prepared to say Mass. 
An immense concourse filled the church. 
Dominic, while be held up the host, was 
himself raised in ecstasy a whole cubit 
from the ground, to the wonder and edi 
fication of all present. Mass being over, 
he went and stood by the dead body, 
laid the injured limbs straight, shed 
some tears over the young man, and 
then, after kneeling some time in prayer, 



rose and made the sign of the cross over 
the corpse ; then, raising his hands to 
heaven, and being at the same time 
miraculously raised from the ground and 
suspended in the nir, he cried aloud, 
" Napoleon, in the name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, I say unto thee, Arise ! " 
That instant the young man arose, 
healed of his bruises and perfectly well. 
Cecilia loved St. Dominic with great 
devotion ; he regarded her with fatherly 
affection, calling her his eldest daughter. 
At the age of seventeen, she was the first 
nun who received the veil from his hands. 
She is therefore regarded as the first 
Dominican nun. She was an eye-witness 
of several of his great works. The Nar- 
rativ of B. Cecilia is one of the most 
important sources for the history of St. 
Dominic ( Mamachi, Annals O.P.). 

The Dominican nuns of San Sisto 
were removed by St. Pius V. to the 
stately monastery of Magnanapoli : it 
became a very favourite convent for 
ladies of the highest rank. When the 
convent of St. Agneso at Bologna had 
been built by B. DIANA DEGLI ANDALO, 
Pope Honorius went himself to the 
convent of San Sisto, and, having ex 
plained to the nuns how much it grieved 
him to send any of them out of Rome, 
said that nevertheless he wished that 
four of them should go to Bologna to 
instruct the new community there in the 
rule of their blessed founder. He 
desired them, in the name of the Holy 
Spirit and of holy obedience, to hold a 
council among themselves and choose 
the best among them for this pious work. 
They obeyed, and chose four who had 
received the habit from the hands of St. 
Dominic. Two of these wore B. Cecilia 
and B. AMATA. They went to the new 
convent in Bologna in \ 2 2 .\, two years 
after the death of their founder. ( Veil in 
did her duty there with groat fervour 
and energy for many years, and at last 
became infirm and decrepit and died, 
being nearly ninety years of age. 

Michele Pio, P t ;-dicat&lt;&gt;ri. AA.SS. 
I .utlei, tiv&lt;&gt;8 of tin l- ,ill,,r8, "St. 
Dominic," Aug. 4. 

B. Cecilia &lt;i: of Gubbio. (See 

f il-ANAIA. ) 

St. Cecilia (14) of Sweden, Aug. 



170 



B. CECILIA 



lit). (" l. Ii t . Fourth and youngest 
daughter of ST. BRIG ID of Sweden, and 
sister of ST. CATHERINE of Sweden. Her 
life and that of her mother were in 
extreme danger at the time of her birth, 
but, owing to the direct intervention of 
the Virgin Mary, both were preserved. 
The Virgin Mary appeared again shortly 
afterwards to St. Brigid, and exhorted 
her to show gratitude by bringing up 
her children piously and virtuously. 
Brigid therefore contemplated making 
Cecilia a nun in the convent of Schening, 
but Cecilia married twice, and, as a 
widow, spent her life, like Tabitha, in 
doing good to the poor. Vastovius, 
Vitis AquUonia. 

B. Cecilia ( !."&gt;) of Ferrara, Jan. 2.~&gt;, 
O.S.D. ( l."&gt;07. Contemporary with 
another Dominican, B. CECILIA ( 1 G ) of 
Ferrara. This Cecilia was very young, 
and is said by her biographer not to 
have known what sin was. She prayed 
to have her purgatory in this world, and 
obtained that grace through the inter 
cession of B. BEATRICE, one of her fellow- 
nuns. Accordingly she suffered much 
from ill health. She broke a blood 
vessel on the chest, and was confined to 
bed for six months, and became extremely 
thin. During her illness, she endured 
great temptations of the devil, though 
he had never assailed her so fiercely 
when she was in health. She prayed to 
St. Catherine that she might be married 
to Christ, which prayer was answered, 
for after her death a ring was seen on 
her finger by B. Calimeto and another 
holy friar of Spain, although by no one 
else. She was very constant in the 
devotion of the rosary, and the B. V. 
MAKY showed her acceptance of this 
service by causing her hands to smell 
of roses after her death. She is not 
canonized. Serafino Razzi, Prwliriitnrt. 
Pio, Uoinint. 

B. Cecilia ( 1 &lt;&gt; ) of Ferrara, March 7, 
May 4, Dec. !!. i:.ll. O.S.D. At 
the beginning of the K&gt;th century there 
were two Cecilias, in two convents of 
St. Catherine at Ferrara ; they were both 
of the Order of St. Dominic, and both 
considered saints in their own city and 
order. One convent was under the 
patronage of ST. CAT^ERINK ( 1 ) ; the 



other of ST. CATIIKKIXE ($). To dis 
tinguish one set of nuns from the other, 
those of the convent of St. Catherine (1 ) 
the Martyr were called "Le Martiri," 
and those of the great mediaeval Siennese 
were called " Le Sanesi." The elder of 
these two Blessed Cecilias was born about 
the middle of the J ."&gt;tb century, and had 
in her early years no thought of becoming 
a nun until a holy man foretold to her 
that such was her destiny. Believing 
his words, she opposed her parents wish 
for her marriage until they insisted so 
much that she had to give way. She 
married a good young man, rich in virtues 
as well as in worldly goods. After eight 
years of married life, in 1 4S(&gt;, they parted 
by mutual consent. He became a monk 
in the convent of St. Dominic, and she 
a nun in that of St. Catherine the Martyr. 
She lived there thirty years, and was 
three times prioress. She set an example 
of great virtue and piety during her life, 
and wrought miracles after her death. 
During part of the time that Cecilia was 
one of the Martiri, the community was 
ruled by B. ANTONIA OF BRESCIA, in 
whose Life Cecilia is mentioned, Oct. 27. 
AA.SS., P.B. 

St. Ceciliana, Feb. l ti, M. in Africa. 
AA.SS. 

St. Cecilus, CELEDONIA. 

St. Ceciria, CECILIA (7). 

St. Cecra, Oct. 1&lt;&gt; (CACRA, CEREA, 
ETERE ). 3rd or 4th century. M. with 
27&lt;&gt; others in Africa, or at Tripoli in 
Asia. AA.SS. 

St. Cectamaria, ETHEMBRIA. 

St. Cefronia. FEHKOMA is honoured 
by the Ethiopians under this name. 

St. Ceinwen. Granddaughter of 
Brychan. Possibly same as ST. KEYS A. 
Some churches in Anglesea are dedicated 
in the name of Ceinwen. ( Sec ALMHEDA.) 
Rees. 

St. Celadoine, CHELIDONIA. 

St. Celedonia, or CECILUS, May 7, 
M. in Africa. AA.SS. 

St. Celerina (D, Feb. ."&gt;, M. at 
Carthage, early in the :&gt;rd century, with 
her son, St. Laureutinus, and his brother- 
in-law and fellow-soldier, St. Ignatius. 
These martyrs are mentioned in several 
of the epistles of St. Cyprian, bishop of 
Carthage, to Celerina s grandson, St. 



ST. CERCYHA 



171 



Celerinus, deacon ami confessor. There 

was a church at Carthago early in tlio 

;&gt;th century, whose dedication was in the 

name of St. Celerina. .11. XX. Baillet, 

Smith and Waco, Christian R HJ. 

St. Celerina &lt; - &gt;, Sept. -js, M. in 

Africa. -1.1. XX. 
St. Celesta, April Hi, M. at Rome. 

.1.1. NX. 

St. Celestina ( 1 ). DIGS A ( 1). 

St. Celestina i _ &gt;, April &gt;, V. M. 
&lt; Commemorated with eight hundred other 
martyrs in the collegiate church of St. 
Mary at Utrecht. Henschenins. AA.^ ^ 

B. Celestina (3), one of the nine 
sisters of ST. IXAINFIIKIU:. 

B. Celeswintha, GALSWIXTHA. 

St. Celine, CII.IMA &lt; I i. 

B. Celsa. (8eeJhnax*Km 

St. Cenburg, QUENBURGA. 

St. Cenedlon, a saint on the moun 
tain of Cymorth, probably near New 
castle, in Kmlyn. Daughter of Brychan. 
S Ai.MiiKi A. i Rees. 

St. Cenen, KEYNA. 

St. Centolla, August 18, V. M. 
1 robably time of Diocletian. St. Cen 
tolla was put to the torture to induce 
her to renounce the Christian faith. ST. 
Jh:ii:\ ( 2 ) (called in some accounts a 
widow ) came and stood by, and com 
forted and encouraged her in her deter 
mination. Centolla answered, " See that 
you also bo of good courage, for you are 
soon to bo put to death for Christ s sake." 
And so it happened, for these things 
lii-ing told to the governor, ho had them 
both beheaded, lest the number of the 
Christians should increase. Some ac 
counts say Centolla was a native of 
T. &gt;ledo. In the 1 :5th century their bodies 
were translated with great honour into 
tin- cathedral of Burgos. KM. vLl. s \ 
I ollandi. 

St. Cephinia, TKYPHONIA. 

St. Cera, Jan. ."&gt;, Oct. 10 (Cm-:i:\, 
&lt; HIKI:, ClABA, CYI:\ . _ , KI\I:\ , V. 
Ahh.-s. i;th or 7th century. 

I ndi-r thcso nix names, and perhaps 
inure, and at dates a century apart, two 
famous virgins of the early Irish Church 
an- hiiiniiin-d. They are often confounded 
her, and it may be that only one 
saint is commemorated, and that mis 
takes in the monastic records have placed 



her sometimes in one century, sometimes 
in another. Supposing, with Lanigan, 
that there were two, the accounts are as 
follows : 

I. At Muscraig, in Momonia, a great 
fire, with a horrible smell, broke out 
from the earth. The people applied to 
St. Brendan to save them from this 
plague and terror. He told them to go 
to ( era, by whoso prayers they should 
be delivered. They went to her. She 
prayed, and the fire disappeared. 

II. The other St. Cora, or Cyra, was- 
the daughter of Duibhre, or Dubreus, of 
the blood of the kings of Connor. When 
St. Muniia, or Fintan Munnu, had lived 
five years at Heli, a virgin named Chier r 
attended by live other virgins, came to 
him, and asked for a place where they 
might serve God. He and his monk& 
gave up their abode and the work of the 
place to the nuns, and went away, taking 
necessaries for the journey in a cart 
with two oxen. He gave his blessing to 
Cera, but told her the place should not 
be called by her name, but by that of the 
man who, on that day, made three jubi 
lations in Agro Miodhluachrec, /.&lt; . St. 
Telle, the son of Segen. The place was 
called Tech Tello. Cera died i7 .;. &lt; &gt;m 
of these SS. Cera founded and governed 
a famous monastery of nuns at Kilchere, 
or Kilcren. Colgan, Irish Saints. AA.SS. 
/;// /. Xancta. Bucelinus, Men. Ben. 
Lanigan. 

St. Cercyra, April 2 ., V. M., c. 100, 
at ( 1 orfu. SS. Jason and Sosipater con 
verted many of the people of Corfu to 
Christianity, and were therefore cast 
into prison, with seven robbers who were 
among their converts. The robbers 
were then thrown into a caldron full of 
burning sulphur and pitch. CKIU M; \. 
the daughter of Cercilinus, king or 
governor of ( )orfu, looked secretly out at 
the gate to see the torments of the 
Christian martyrs. She was BO impressed 
that she immediately embraced the same 
faith. Her father, enraged, gave her to 
a savage Kthiopian, from whom she was 
Irl rmk d by a bear. Whereupon, the 
Kthiopian was converted, and, declaring 
himself to bo a Christian, was put to the 
sword. St. Curcyra was suspended over 
a lire until she was nearly choked with 



172 



ST. CEREA 



smoke, and was then pierced with arrows 
and crushed with stones. She is com- 
memorated with St. Saturninus, the chief 
of the seven thieves. Men. of Basil. 

St. Cerea, CKCKA. 

St. Cerentia, Aug. in, M. AA.SS. 

St. Cereta, April 27. f c. 1324. 
Nun, O.S.A. Disciple of B. CLARA OF 

Mo.NTKFAlJ O. AA.SS. 

St. Cerille, or CICERCULA, honoured 
from time immemorial in a church of 
Berry. Migne, Die. Hag. Chatelain, 
French Mart. Possibly one of the SS. 



St. Cerona (1 ), CORONA. 

St. Cerona (2), Nov. 10, Feb. 3. 
f 400. 

Eepresented in a nun s dress, holding 
ii book in her left hand, to imply that 
she brought the gospel to the district 
where she settled. 

Cerona was born at the village of 
Cornillan, near Beziers. She fled with 
her brother Sophronius from the house 
of their heathen parents. With great 
fatigue and trouble they arrived at 
Bordeaux, where they got the bishop to 
instruct and baptize them, and in time 
to confer holy orders on Sophronius and 
the sacred veil on Cerona. They were 
maligned by some wicked people, who 
said they were not brother and sister, 
tut concealed an unholy love under the 
pretence of relationship. So they decided 
to separate. Sophronius went to Rome 
to visit the tombs of the Apostles, and 
died in odour of sanctity. Cerona went 
northward, and, after many dangers, 
arrived in the diocese of Seez about 440. 
Here she built a little cell, in a solitary 
wooded place near Mortagnc, between 
the ancient town of Mont Cacune and 
the hill of Mont Komigny. Some pious 
women gathered round her, and with the 
consent of Hile, bishop of Seez, she 
founded for them the first monastery in 
that diocese. She built two chapels or 
oratories near, one of them on the spot 
where now stands a church called by 
her name. She worked very assiduously 
at the conversion of the inhabitants to 
Christianity, building one of her chapels 
on a spot where they used to practise 
heathen rites as part of their funeral 
ceremonies. In her old age she became 



blind. To help her to visit her two 
oratories every day, she had wire 
stretched from one to the other, that she 
might guide herself by taking hold of it. 
Children and shepherds several times 
mischievously broke this wire ; it was 
as often miraculously joined again. She 
died Nov. 1 :,, 41n. P.B. 

St. Cerose, SICILDIS. 

St. Cerota, or CKI;&lt;&gt;TK, SICILDIS. 

St. Cesarea, May i:&gt;, V. Born at 
Villa Franca, in Calabria. Her father 
was a rich man named Aloysius. His 
beautiful wife, Lucretia, on her death 
bed, obtained from him a promise that if 
he married again, he would choose a 
wife equal to her, not only in beauty but 
in piety. None such could be found, 
except her daughter Cesarea, whom 
accordingly Aloysius wished to marry. 
Cesarea, like ST. DYMPXA of Gheel, fled 
from her home to avoid so horrible a 
crime, and took refuge in a cavern near 
the sea, which could only be approached 
in calm weather, and even then was very 
difficult of access. Here she lived in 
holy seclusion and performed miraculous 
cures, before and after her death, by 
means of a sulphurous fountain in the 
cave. AA.SS. 

St. Cesaria (l), Nov. 1, at Rome. 
Mart. Rcichenau. 

St. Cesaria (2), March 25, M. 
Migne. 

St. Cesaria (a), Jan. 1 2, V. Abbess. 
J" c. r&gt;3&lt;&gt;. Sister of St. Cesarius, arch 
bishop of Aries, a man of great holiness 
and charity. Cesaria was born late in 
the fifth century, and brought up in a 
nunnery at Marseilles, probably that 
founded by Cassian. Cesarius became 
archbishop of Aries in ,"&gt;ol, and soon 
afterwards built a monastery there, with 
a very large church, for his sister and a 
community of nuns, of which he ap 
pointed her the head. He worked at the 
building with his own hands. The house 
was at first called St. John s, but after 
wards came to be called by the name of 
its first abbess, St. Cesaria. In r&gt;07 
Aries was besieged by Theodoric, king 
of Italy. Cesaria and her nuns fled to 
Marseilles, and their house was destroyed. 
When peace was restored, Cesarius re 
built the convent. The nuns returned, 



ST. CHELIDONIA 



173 



and there Cesaria dietl, in ::!M. Slio 
was succeeded by another Cesaria, who 
was living twelve years afterwards, at 
the time of the death of the good arch 
bishop. By his will, which is extant, 
he left all his property to the nunnery. 
The rule which St. Cesarius drew up for 
the nuns may be read in his Life, by the 
Bollandists. It was afterwards changed 
in this monastery for that of St. Benedict. 
Butler, " St. Cesarius," Aug. 27. Bariug- 
&lt;!ould. AA.SS. Baillet. 

St. Cesaria (4), CASARIA (1). 

St. Cessia, Nov. 1, M. at Terracina, 
with seven women and eight men, at the 
en 1 of tho 1st century. Mentioned in 
th" old martyrologies. AA.SS. 

St. Cetamaria, ETHEMBRIA. 

St. Cethuberes, or CETHUBRIS, 

Km KM I-.IMA. 

St. Cetumbria, ETHKMBKIA. 

St. Chaphte,OrClIAPTHE,AGATHA(l). 

SS. Chariessa, or CARIESSE, Chris 
tiana &lt; 1 ), or CHRISTINA ( 2 i, Basilissa 
( -i i. Galla, Gallena, Lota, Nunechia, 
Calis, Nice, Tertia, and Theodora, 
April lt. :&gt;rd century. These saints 
were taken to Corinth and made to walk 
to the seashore. Chariessa sang psalms 
and hymns loudly the whole way. They 
were put on board ship and, when thirty 
stadia from the land, a stone was fastened 
t &gt; the neck of each, and they were all 
thrown into tho water. AA.SS. 

St. Charis, or CARIS, Jan. 2H, M. 
Tin TO is a Greek distich saying that 
wh -n her feet were cut otf she ran to 
li uven, her soul being more nimble 
when her body was lame. Date unknown. 
AA.S8. 

St. Charisia, CARIBIA (1). 

St. Charissima, CARISSIMA. 

St. Charitana, or CAHITAINE, June 
12, M. sit Koine. 

St. Charitina &lt; I i, Oct. ."&gt;, Jan. 15, 
M ;it Amisus, in Pontus, about 304. 
J at ron of Venice and Carthagena. 

Represented i I i with an angel extin 
guishing a funeral pile ; ( 2 ) with a pair 

of tollgs. 

Charitina was servant to a Christian, 
nani&lt;:d Claudius, who was much grieved 
when In.- was ordnvd to deliver her up 
to J)oinitius. 0DM6I under Diocletian; 
but .she comforted him, and said she 



would offer her life as a sacrifice for his 
and her own sins. He begged her to 
pray for him in the heavenly kingdom. 
Burning coals were strewn on her head, 
and after other tortures she was thrown 
into the sea. She considered that would 
stand in the place of baptism. She was 
not drowned but came safely out of tho 
water and stood before her persecutor, 
who inflicted various tortures ; finally 
her teeth were pulled out and her fingers 
and toes cut off, and she died of exhaustion. 

E.M., Get .5. Men. Basil, Jan. 15. 
.1.1. NX. Tin- Bollandists, in t In -ir sir-count 
of this saint, say there is another ST. 
CHARITIXA, Sept. 4. Husenbeth,/Jm6/t ms. 

St. Charitina ( 2 ), Oct. ."&gt;. A mem 
ber of the family of the dukes of Poland. 
Married Theodore, a Russian prince. 
After his death she became a nun in the 
convent of SS. Peter and Paul. Date 
uncertain. Annual commemoration in 
some places in the province of Novgorod. 
Grseco-Slav. Calendar. AA.SS. 

St. Charito, June 1, V. M. c. 167, 
Scourged and beheaded at Rome, with 
St. Justin and two other Christians. A 
short account of their trial and execution 
is given in Greek and Latin by Pape- 
broch, from ancient judicial Acts. Tho 
narrative differs from many of its class 
in that it contains no miracles, no theo 
logical argument, no denouncing of the 
judge or officers of justice by the 
prisoners, no wholesale conversion or 
destruction of spectators or executioners. 
AAJS3. 

St. Charity (1&gt; See FAITH, HOPE, 
and CHARITY. 

St. Charity (2), Dec. 2:&gt;. Abbess at 
Bethlehem. Ferrarius. 

St. Chatte, AGATHA. 

St. Chelidonia, Oct. i:J (CELADOINE,. 
CHKI.ADOINA, CLARIDONIA, CLERIDONA), 
V. Anchorite. "f 1 1 ~&gt;2. One of tho 
patrons of Subiaco. Born of a good 
family in the Abruzzi, singularly pious 
from her earliest childhood, she lived 
nearly sixty years as a recluse among 
the mountains near Subiaco. After sho 
had begun her solitary life, she made a 
pilgrimage to Rome. On her return, sho 
took tho voil,in tho convent of St. Scholas- 
tica, at Subiaco. Instead of remaining 
there, sho spent the rest of her life iu 



174 



ST. CHELIXDRA 



her hermitage. People used 4o send her 
food, and when they neglected her she 
was fed by ravens, like Elijah. Many 
persons resorted to her to be cured of 
divers diseases. At the hour of her 
death, a great light appeared around the 
place, so that people thought there was 
ft frightful conflagration, and some feared 
the convent was on fire. Bucelinus says 
she was born at Cellis, in Calabria ; ho 
calls her Claridonia, abbess of Subiaco. 
There is a fresco of her in the monas 
tery ; on the dress is a curious inscrip 
tion, scratched apparently by a chaplain 
of Pope Pius II. ( 14:&gt;S-14(J4), when he 
was celebrating Mass there. jR.Jf. 
AA.SS. Hare, Cities of Italy, p. 43. 
Bucelinus, Men. Ben. 

St. Chelindra, or QUELIXDRIS, V. M. 
Formerly honoured at Utrecht. Guerin. 

St. Chendechildis, THEODECHILD. 

St. Chera, CERA. 

St. Cherie, PULCHERIA. 

St. Chiara ( 1 ), Italian for CLARA. 

St. Chiara (2;, CERA. 

B. Chiaretta. (See ILLUMINATA (2).) 

St. Chier, CERA. 

St. Childechinda, CHILDECHINDIS, or 
HILDERADA. "f 080. Daughter of 
Chilperic I. by his first wife, ST. AUDO- 
VERA. Banished in her infancy, with 
her mother, to the monastery of Le 
Mans, where she spent nine years very 
piously, and was put to the sword by 
order of the wicked Queen Fredegund. 
Her murder is supposed to have procured 
her the crown of martyrdom. The snow 
of her innocence, adorned with the blood 
of her martyrdom, was more glorious 
than the purple robes of royalty. Buce 
linus, Men. Sen. Wion, Lignum Vitse, 
lib. iv. cap. 28. 

St. Childemara, HILDKMAR. 

St. Childerada, CHILDECHINDA. 

St. Childomerga, HILDEMAR. 

St. Chilsuinta, GALSUINTHA. 

St. Chimoia, Feb. ."&gt;, M. in Japan. 
AA.SS. 

St. Chinedrithae, KYXEDKIDK. 

St. Chinesdre, KYXEDUIDK. 

St.ChinreachaDercain,V. Abbess. 
Mentioned in Life of ST. ITA. Identified 
with KAIRECHA, called also DERCAIN. 
Erroneously identified with Kuxi;i;.\. 
O Hanlon. 



St. Chionia, sister of A&lt;;APE ( :j) and 
IKKXE. 

St. Chlodsendis, GI.U&gt;MSIXD. 
Chlotichilda, CLOTILDA ( I i. 
St. Chonta, QI-IXTA. 

St. Choticlia, COTII.I \. 

St. Chottia, COTII.IA. 

St. Chreme, CARISSIMA. 

St. Chresta, CHRISTA. 

St. Chrischona. (See CUNIGUND (1).) 

St. Christa ( 1 ). (See CALLISTA ( 1 ). ) 

St. Christa ( 2 ), CHRESTA, or CRASTA, 
June 4. M. in Cilicia, or Sicilia, i.e. 
Sicily. AA.S8. 

St. Christeia, CHRISTIE. 

St. Christes, V. Daughter of ST. 
THERMANTIA (q.v.). 

St. Christeta, M. (See SAHIXA and 
CHRISTETA.) 

St. Christiana (1). {See CHARIESSA.) 

St Christiana (2), Feb. &lt;;, M. 
AAJ38* 

St. Christiana 0*) Dec - J ~ (CHRIS 
TIANA - ANCILLA, CHRISTIANA - ESCRAVA, 
CHRISTIANA-CAPTIVA, etc.). 4th century. 
A Christian captive who converted the 
Iberians. R.M. Butler. She seems to 
be more generally called Xixo. 

St. Christiana (4 ). EM. EUMA. 

St. Christiana ("&gt;), or CHRISCHONA. 
( Ser ( VXKCUXD ( 1 ).) 

B. Christiana ( &gt;.), ORINOA. 

St. Christiancie, companion of ST. 
URSULA. Baillet. 

St. Christicola, June ii, V. M. 
Companion of ST. URSULA. Her /- /&lt; 
held at Prague this day. AA.SS. 
Prfcter. 

St. Christie, or CHRISTEIA, honoured 
in the diocese of Auch. P.B. 

St. Christina ( 1 ), July 24, V. M. 
c. 3(2. Patron of Torcello in Venice, 
the Venetian States, Bolsena, Paternio, 
of children at Orleans. 

Represented ( 1 ) holding arrows or a 
book and an arrow, a square furnace with 
flames coming out of it stands near her, 
in the distance a tower on a hill, sepa 
rated from her by a lake ; (2 ) tied to a 
pillar and shot with arrows ; ( &gt; ) a mill 
stone by her side; (4) with serpents. 

Christina was so called after her con 
version to Christianity ; her former name 
is unknown. She was the daughter of 
Urbanus, a Roman patrician, governor 



ST. CIIKISTIXA 



17.- 



of the town of Tyro, which stood on an 
i-lund in the Lake of Vulsiniura, mw 
Bolsena. Urbanus shut her up in a tower 
with twelve maids, who were charged to 
bring her back to the worship of the 
gods. Having no money, she broke her 
father s gold and silver idols, and gave 
the pieces to the beggars. Her father 
therefore ordered her to be beaten and 
thrown into a dungeon, where angels 
comforted her and healed her stripes. 
She was next thrown into the lake with 
n millstone round her neck. Angels 
held up the stone, and floated her safe 
to land. UrbanuR had a fire lighted, and 
put her iu it. She remained five days 
unharmed, singing praises to God. He 
then had her head shaved, and dragged 
her to the temple of Apollo, intending 
to compel her to sacrifice. As soon as 
she looked upon the statue of the god, 
it fell down before her, and her father 
fell dead from wonder and rage. His 
successor, Julian, heard Christina sing 
ing in her prison. He had her tongue 
cut out, whereupon she sang better 
than ever. Then ho shut her up in a 
dungeon with serpents, but they could 
not harm her, so ho had her bound to a 
tree and shot with arrows ; and thus she 



The Spanish version of the story of 
St. Christina contains horrid details of 
her martyrdom, and fierce reproaches 
interchanged between her and her father. 
When Julian had her tongue cut out, 
she took it and threw it in his face and 
put out his eye. 

It has been believed in some times and 

places that ( hristina had the privilege 

of restoring one person to health each 

&lt;lay. Consequently it was the custom to 

commend a sick person to her as soon as 

ihle after midnight, that her favour 

might not bo already bespoken. The 

Church of K ome retains the worship of 

this saint, but condemns this practice 

.1:1 i-lhr superstition, and forbids the 

;id t.. b&lt;- r.-ad in the churches. 

Sin i&gt; said to have been only eleven 
years old at the time of her martyrdom. 
This is doubtlea the reason she is con- 
sid.-re.l one of the patron saints of chil- 
dn-n, and adopted as the patron of the 
Congregation of Ste. Chretienne for 



I Mucation, founded at Metz in l&gt;i7 by 
IConatigneai Jaufi ret, bishop of M t/. 

JR.Jf. AA.SS. Mrs. Jameson. &gt; &lt;//,,,/ 
innl L&gt;,/&lt;&gt;nd(iry Art. Fl&lt;&gt;* S nirtnrm,,. 
Villegas, who quotes Bede, Ado. and 
Usuaidus. Baronius, Annales. V 
Jiasil. llutler. Baillet. Leytjendario &lt;L-l l, 
Siuttr \ ,-niini. Thiers, Traite den &//. 
siitinni, i. 2."&gt;S i 1 777 ). ( ahier. Hus.-n- 
beth. 

St. Christina i *l 1. ( Set CHARIKSSA. ) 

St. Christina ( ), May :&gt;n, M. burned 
at Nicomedia. with a great multitude of 
Christians. Papebroch, in AA.SS. 

St. Christina (4), March i:j, V. M. 
in Persia. li.M. 

St. Christina ("&gt;) of Brittany, June 
17. tlth century. Called TIXAIK KKISTNA, 
or SANK TE CHKISTIKXNE DE BKETAGNK, 
devoted servant and disciple of the blind 
St. Hervey or Houarne ( June I 7 &gt;. Mas 
Latrie and Guerin call her his sister; 
but, according to Villemarque, Letfrude 
Celtique, she was still young when, in 
his extreme old age, he gave her his last 
commands and blessing, and died before 
the altar, in his own little church. &lt; hris 
tina served and obeyed him to the last 
moment of his life, and then she lay 
down at his feet and died. 

St. Christina &lt; &lt; , July i&gt;:&gt;, i_ &lt;;. stb 
century. Patron of Dendermond, in 
Brabant, where her relics are kept in 
the collegiate church. Legend says she 
was the only child of Migranimus, a 
heathen king of England, and his Scotch 
wife Marona. They had been childless 
for many years when this daughter was 
born. She grew up good and beautiful. 
Her father built a temple of Venus and 
placed her in it, with seven maids to 
take care of her. One day a pilgrim 
beggod for alms in the name of Christ. 
She asked who Christ was; this led to 
her conversion and baptism. The French 
Mdrtyrology says she was taken across 
the sea, by an angel, to Dickelven on 
tin- S&lt; lieldt, to lead a solitary life; was 
martyred and buried there, and trans 
late! to Dendermond in the following 
erntury. The Amihrtti ,// //* / ,./ 
iii. p. |s;j4, calls her daughter of King 
Ti -i^aminus, and says she was led by an 
angel into Scotland, and tbciico to ! 1- 
ginm, where she could worship God 



170 



ST. CHRISTINA 



better in a poor little but tbafl in marble 
halls. AA.SS. Brit. Sane. Martin. 
Guerin. 

St. Christina (7), Nov. 2&lt;&gt;, Sept. 7, 
Dec. ."&gt;, Aug. 1 1 , March JJ, V. "f about 
1100. Abbess of liomsey. Daughter of 
Prince Edward, and of Agatha, who was 
a nun with her at Eomsey. Grand 
daughter of King Edmund II. of Eng 
land. Sister of ST. MAHGAKET, queen of 
Scotland. She educated her nieces EDITH 
or MATILDA, queen of England, and Mary, 
countess of Boulogne. She compelled 
them to wear the dress of nuns, but they 
did not take monastic vows. Memorial 
of Ancient British Piety. Bishop Forbes, 
Kalendars : Anahcta, iii. col. 1 8M4. Buce- 
linus, Men. Ben., Aug. 11. Ferrarius. 
Wion, Lignum Vitse. Eckenstein. 

St. Christina (8), May 18. 12th 
century. Queen of Sweden. Of the 
Stenkil family; her father was Biorn 
of Denmark; her mother, Catherine, 
daughter of St. Ingo IV. and ST. KAGN- 
HILD, king and queen of Sweden (1118- 
1129). Christina married first, Jarislav 
Haraldson, prince of Holmgard ; and 
secondly, Eric IX., called " The Saint," 
and "The Lawgiver" (1155-1161 ac 
cording to Haydn ; 1141-1151 according 
to Butler) ; also called Henry, a Swedish 
nobleman, son of lad ward. He assisted 
Ingo to conquer the Finns, and sent St. 
Henry, bishop of Upsala, an Englishman 
and friend of Nicholas Breakspear, to 
instruct the people and convert them to 
Christianity. Henry is therefore called 
the Apostle of Finland, where he fell a 
martyr to his mission. On the death of 
King Swerker, or Smercher, Eric was 
chosen king on account of his virtues 
and prowess. Eric was content with his 
own property; he levied no taxes, and 
would not even accept the third of the 
confiscations, which belonged to the kings. 
He collected the laws into a code for his 
people, and won their lasting affection 
by his wise and upright rule. His 
cousin, Henry Scateler, son of Sueno, 
king of the Danes, claimed to be heir to 
the throne of Sweden through his mother, 
and having raised troops and bribed some 
influential persons among the Swedes, 
devised the death of the unsuspecting 
saint. While Eric was hearing Mass on 



Ascension Day, his attendants came an&lt;3 
told him that the hostile army was 
near, but he would not go out to battle 
until the Mass was ended. Then he 
went bravely against the enemy, and was 
killed or taken alive, fighting, and be 
headed next day. On the spot where ho 
fell, a spring of water arose, which works 
marvellous cures. He is regarded as a 
martyr of justice and order. He was 
the chief patron saint of Sweden until 
the Reformation, and is still remembered 
with affection. His tomb is preserved 
undefaced, and King Eric s code is re 
garded with respect. Christina survived 
many years in great sanctity. She left 
two sons and two daughters, of whom 
Knut was afterwards king of Sweden, 
and Margaret was queen of Norway. 
Vastovius, Vitis Aquilonia. Butler and 
Baillet each give the Life of St. Eric, 
but do not call Christina, or her parents 
or grandparents, saints. Her worship is 
probably local ; it is mentioned in Ana- 
lecta Juris Pontificii, iii. 1884. Benzel- 
stierna s History of Sweden, by Olof 
Dalin, ii. p. 127, Dahnert s German ver 
sion. Vita S. Erici, in Fant and Anner- 
stedt, Script. Her. Suecicarum. 

St. Christina d), July 24, "the 
Wonderful." f c. 1224, V. Sometimes 
represented in a font. She was the 
youngest of three sisters living at St. 
Trudonopolis (St. Tron), in Brabant, 
On the death of their pious parents the 
three divided their labours thus: the 
eldest was to pray, the second to keep 
the house, and the third to keep the 
sheep. Soon Christina, the shepherdess, 
fell ill and died. Next day she was 
carried to the church amid the lamenta 
tions of her sisters and the sympathy 
of their friends. While the Mass was 
being said for her repose, she sat up on 
the bier, and then went like a bird on 
to the rafters of the church. All fled 
in terror except her eldest sister. At 
the end of the Mass, Christina was com 
pelled by the priest to come down. She 
returned home with her sisters, and was 
refreshed with food. She told her 
friends that immediately after her death 
she was taken by angels to purgatory, 
where she saw souls, many of which 
were those of persons she knew, suffering 



ST. ClimsTINA 



177 



such dreadful pains that she thought 
tin s must be hell. She was then shown 
hell, where also she recognized some of 
her friends. Afterwards she was taken 
to paradise, where God welcomed and 
oongntelftfted her on her arrival, and 
bade her choose whether she would 
remain with Him in heaven for ever, 
or return to earth for some years and 
suffer, that her sufferings might avail to 
release all the souls she had seen and 
pitied in purgatory, and also, by a life 
of penanco, convert many persons still 
living in the world. She chose, with 
out hesitation, to go back and suffer. 
She added that her friends must not bo 
astonished at the wonderful things that 
would happen to her, as they were 
ordained by God. 

From this time Christina fled from 
the presence of her fellow-creatures with 
horror, and abode in desert places, in 
trees, or on the tops of towers or churches. 
People thought her possessed of devils, 
and caught and bound her repeatedly, 
Imt in vain ; she always escaped again. 
When she was suffering from hunger 
she would on no account return home, 
but prayed God to mitigate her suffer 
ings. In answer to her prayer she was 
enabled to live on milk from her own 
breast for nine weeks. She used to go 
into hot ovens, and scream as if in tor 
ments, but always came out uninjured. 
She threw herself into boilers full of 
boiling water, and while remaining 
there some time she screamed and 
groaned, but no trace of scalding or 
burning was visible on her body after 
wards. She held her hand in the fire, 
spent days in icy water, she was bitten 
by dogs, went round in a mill-wheel, 
hung herself on a gibbet under the 
corpses of robbers, and spent some time 
in graves. Once in an ecstasy she span 
round like a wheel, uttering an inarticu 
late song. She ran so fast that a man, 
who was employed to catch her, had a 
v-ry long run, and at last knocked her 
down witlt a blow of a stick, which 
broke her shin. Sometimes she wonld 
roll herself up in a ball like a hedgehog. 
When her clothes were worn out she 
begged others of any one she met; if 
her gown wanted a sleeve, she begged 



a sleeve, and did not mind if it was of 
another colour. If she received bread 
bought with unjust gains it caused her 
the most agonizing pain. If any on. 
in the town died whom she believed to 
be damned, she screamed and howled, 
and twisted her arms and hands as if 
there were no bones in them. People 
thought there was something demoniacal 
in her wish for death, and her horror 
of her fellow-creatures. Her sisters had 
her chained to a pillar, believing her 
to be mad or possessed of devils. When 
she had broken loose repeatedly, and was 
tied tighter, and had sores from the 
tightness of her chains, oil that flowed 
from her breasts made a healing oint 
ment for her wounds, and also served 
her for food. Then her sisters wept, 
and thought only the special inter 
ference of God could have wrought this 
miracle. They prayed, and so did many 
persons who came to see the miracle, 
that Christina might bo able to live 
amongst other people. Their prayers 
were heard. Soon after, she went into 
a church, and, finding the baptismal font 
open, she immersed herself entirely in 
it; after this she was better able to 
endure the presence and the smell of 
human beings. 

One day, being providentially con 
ducted by extreme thirst to the table of 
a very wicked man, who was sitting at a 
sumptuous banquet, she asked for some 
thing to drink. The sinner was moved 
with a feeling of unwonted pity and 
charity, and entreated her to drink some 
wine. She then foretold, much to the 
surprise of all who knew the man, that 
ho would die penitent and pardoned. 
She had a kind of second sight, by which 
she saw battles and deaths that wn-e 
happening at a great distance, and con Id 
discern good people from bad. She 
foretold the fall of a nun of the convent 
in her native town, also the taking of 
Jerusalem by Saladin. 

Alter a time she left her own people 
and joined a recluse, named Ivetta, 
Vetta, or Juera, at Los, or Loen, on tho 
borders of Germany. There she fre 
quented the church, singing like ;m 
tingel at night, when all the other people 
bud gone away. She knew if the clergy 



178 



B. CHRISTINA 



of that church had any secretrfault, and 
she used to reprove them with respect 
ful childlike affection. Louis, count of 
Los, had a great reverence for her, and 
called her " mother." When he was guilty 
of any injustice she afflicted herself about 
it as if ho were her own son, went to 
his palace, remonstrated with him, and 
obtained a reversal of his unjust decree. 
When he was dying ho sent for her, 
confessed to her all his sins from the 
time he was eleven years old, and en 
treated her to pray for him; he then 
disposed of his worldly goods according 
to her advice. He died, and she saw 
his soul taken to purgatory and horribly 
tormented. His spirit returned to en 
treat her help, and she promised to take 
some of his suffering for him. She 
visited the places where he used to sin, 
and those where he amused himself with 
the vanities of the world, and wept 
bitterly for him. 

Towards the end of her life she again 
took to living in desert places, only 
coming at rare intervals among her 
fellow-creatures to get food. No one 
dared to ask her any questions. At last 
she returned to St. Tron, and made the 
convent of St. Catherine her usual abode. 
The venerable Thomas, priest of St. 
Tron, watched her secretly when she 
thought herself alone in the church. 
He saw her throw herself like a bag 
of dry bones before the altar, and beat 
herself, and heard her revile her body 
and lament with tears and sobs that she 
was joined to it. After an interval of 
silence she began to laugh, and, taking 
her feet in both her hands, she kissed 
them, and said, "Oh, sweet body, why 
did I abuse and maltreat you, who have 
suffered so many torments with so much 
patience in obedience to the spirit ? " 
Then she kissed hrself all over. She 
continued her life of grief, lamentation, 
and privation until very shortly before 
her death, when her strength was ex 
hausted, and she was wasted to a shadow. 
At her request, Beatrice, one of the nuns 
of St. Catherine s, made a little bed for 
her in her room. There she remained 
for a time, and then, feeling death 
approaching, she asked for the sacra 
ments. After she had received them, 



Beatrice fell at her feet, and begged 
that before she died she would reveal 
certain things to her. As she did not 
reply, 1 Beatrice thought she was medi 
tating on something else, and presently 
left Christina alone in the room. Be 
fore she returned Christina died. Bea 
trice threw herself on the body, asketl 
Christina why she had departed without 
taking leave of the sisters, and conjured 
her, by the obedience she had always 
shown her in life, to return and answer 
her questions. Christina therefore re 
turned to life, and, after affectionately 
reproaching Beatrice for recalling her 
from the realms of bliss, bade her make 
haste and say what she had to say, that 
she might depart finally to her rest. 
When Christina had answered all Bea 
trice s questions, the nuns, who had 
meantime gathered round, took leave of 
her, and consigned her, with prayers 
and blessings, to her third death. Her 
body was translated a few years after 
wards, and miracles were wrought at 
her tomb. 

AA.SS. Her Life by Thomas Canti- 
pratano, O.S.D. Preger, Dcutsclic Myxtik. 
Azvedo. Vaughan. 

B. Christina (KM, or CHRISTIANA, 
Jan. 21. -f 1 258. Daughter of Bernardo 
di Suppone, a nobleman of Assisi. A girl 
friend of ST. CLARA (2) of Assisi, living in 
the same house. Christina went, in 121 :}, 
to St. Francis, who was living in the 
convent of St. Mary of the Angels, and 
received from him the habit of the 
Minors. She joined Clara at S. Damiano, 
outside Assisi, and went with her, in 
1210, to build, at the Fontc di Carpello, 
a village near Foligno, a convent called 
Sta. Maria di Caritate (St. Mary of 
Charity), or della Salute (of Salvation), 
and after two years she returned to St. 
Damian s, where she lived for forty-four 
years with the saint, and survived her 
five years. Jacobilli, Santi ddl Umbria, 
iii. 44n. 

St. Christina i 1 1 ), daughter-in-law 
of ST. AGATHA, grand-princess of Russia. 

St. Christina &lt; 1 2 i, June 22, V. Of 
Stumbela, or Stommeln, in the diocese of 
Cologne. O.S.D. Born c. 1240; t !"!- 
or i:;i:&gt;, aged seventy. Daughter of 
Heinrich Bruso, a peasant. At ten 



B. CHRISTINA VISCONTF 



17!) 



years old Christ appeared to her in a 
dream, and bade her belong to Him 
only. She was so impressed with the 
splendour of her vision that she lost all 
bodily feeling for three days, and novel- 
rested until she joined the I .eg nines. 
At thirteen she went to Cologne, un 
known to her parents. When her mother 
found her, and entreated her to return 
1 101 no, she would not. The Beguines 
advised her to go, but she said she pre 
ferred to sutler hunger and poverty alone 
with ( hrist rather tban live in comfort 
with her parents. She fasted rigorously 
and prayed much. After two years of 
this life, wonderful temptations befell 
her. The devil used to take the form of 
St. Bartholomew, and advise her to kill 
herself. For six months she suffered 
from a constant desire to commit suicide, 
to which succeeded temptations to doubt 

tin points of the Catholic faith. 
Her doubt of the presence of Christ in 
the sacrament of the altar was removed 
by a miracle in answer to her prayer, for 
ut the elevation of the Host she saw in 
the hands of the priest a little child, 
who said to her, &lt;; I am Jesus." 

Next came illusions. When she was 
going to eat she saw a toad, a serpent, 
or a spider on the bread or other food. 
Her disgust at it was such that she could 
not eat. In this way she suffered 
severely from hunger. A priest, fearing 
she would die of inanition, advised her 
to put the food in her mouth, notwith 
standing her disgust. As soon as she 
did so, she felt on her tongue the cold 
body of a reptile, and excessive sickness 
was the consequence. If she had broth, 
she fancied it was full of worms, and 
when she was going to drink, she heard 
a voicj from the cup saying, "If you 
drink me, you drink the devil." Her 
parents wi re angry with her for leaving 
them against their will. The Beguines 
thought she was mad and epileptic, and 

tantly ridiculed her, thinking she 
an ueti-d to be considered pious. When 
she had been with them for five years, 
they sent her back to Stommeln, where 
she lived lor many years, still wearing 
the dress of a Beguinc. She had bleed 
ing from the nose and mouth, and other 
bodily ailments, and used to remain 



rigid and apparently insensible for days 
and sometimes weeks together, during 
which she had visions, sometimes of the 
Passion of Christ. She was tempted by 
the devil with false consolations, and 
with persuasions to longer fasts and 
severer penances than it was possible 
for so fragile a creature to endure. 

Her Life is one of the longest in the 
T.ollandist Collection, and is chiefly 
taken up by her extraordinary tempta 
tions and her combats with devils. 

In 1261* she was marked with the 
stigmata, which her biographer, Peter of 
Dacia, a Dominican friar of Cologne, 
declares that ho and other credible per 
sons saw. She had many ecstasies. By 
her sufferings she released the soul of 
her mother and several others from pur 
gatory. Christina s body was translated 
to Nideck, and afterwards to Jiilich. 
She is commemorated at Jiilich, in the 
diocese of Cologne, and claimed by the 
Dominicans as a member of their order. 

Her Life in the AA.SS., from con 
temporary authors, and partly dictated 
by herself. Her Life, by Peter von 
Dacieu, brought out in German by Wol- 
lersheim, from the MS. preserved at 
Jiilich, and extensively quoted in Preger s 
Deutsche Nijxlil; &lt;hr j//// l&lt;tlter. 

B. Christina (i:&gt;) Visconti, Feb. 
14. Of the Third Order of Hermits of 
St. Augustine, f c. 14."):;. Of the noblo 
family of the Visconti of Milan. To 
avoid marrying, she fled from homo with 
a confidential maid-servant. She assumed 
the black habit of the Augustinians, which 
did not wear out in ten years of very 
hard usage. After living several years 
hidden in the woods, eating what they 
could find, they stayed some time in 
Rome, and visited the holy places ami 
sacred relics with great delight and 
devotion. They then went to Assi^i, 
where a great festival was to be held, 
and an indulgence granted in the church 
of the Portiunctila. There the crowd 
was so great that Christina was pushed 
and crushed, and could hardly get away, 
and lost her companion. She sought her 
in vain all over Assisi, Spoleto, Moutc- 
falro, Rome, and many other places. 
SI ie spent nearly a year at Spoleto with 
a pious woman, from whom she had 



180 



B. OR ST. CHRISTINA 



received hospitality on her first jfturney to 
Assisi. Christina helped her to tend the 
sick, all the time macerating her own 
body for penance. She drove a nail 
through her foot, that she might feel the 
sufferings of Christ. She tied her head 
to the wall, that if it nodded during 
sleep she might immediately be awak 
ened. She died of fever, aged twenty- 
two. She was credited with miracles 
both before and after her death. Hen- 
schenius, AA.SS., says that a contempo 
rary Life of Christina was written by 
Coriolanus. Her Life, by Cornelius 
Curtius, 1630. 

B. or St. Christina (14), Feb. 12, 
Jan. 18. Of Aquila. "f 1543. Of the 
Order of Hermits of St. Augustine. 

Matthia Licarelli was born of humble 
parents at Lucolo, in the territory and 
diocese of Aquila. Pious and self-deny 
ing from her earliest years, she would 
not wear ornaments or have any trim 
ming on her clothes. She disfigured 
herself with long fasts, and, thinking 
herself still too pretty, she would not 
wash her face for months. In 14i6, by 
special direction of Christ, she took the 
veil in the convent of St. Lucy, of the 
Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, 
and with it the name of Christina. She 
had a little picture of St. Mark, which 
she prized very much. One of the nuns 
asked for it. Christina was very sorry 
to part with it, but thought it would be 
wrong to refuse. A few days afterwards 
St. Mark appeared to a painter named 
Silvester, who was painting a picture of 
that apostle. He bade him finish it with 
great care and diligence, and give it to 
Christina, and it was kept in her convent 
long after her death, and called B. Chris 
tina s picture. She was a very fervent 
novice, and was chosen prioress at an 
unusually early age. Gregory XVI. 
approved her immemorial worship. Her 
Life, by Cornelius Curtius, Cologne, 
1636. Torclli, Sccoli Auyustiniani, viii. 
L 67. P.B. 

B. Christina (i."&gt;) Lubomirska. 
17th century. A beautiful Polish lady 
of the same noble family as B. SOMHA 

LlTBOMIUSKA. 

In the family gallery of the Lubo- 
mirski at Jauow, near Warsaw, Christina 



is represented ( I ) as a child, with her 
foot tied to the leg of a table as a punish 
ment or to keep her out of mischief; 
( L i as a girl, kneeling in an ecstasy 
before an altar in her room. 

She was sister of Stanislaus Lubomir- 
ski, called, on account of his learning, 
the Polish Solomon ; and of Jerome 
Lubomirski, who was a companion of 
King John Sobieski in his victory over 
the Turks in 168.V She married Felix 
Potocki. Christina had a rare talent for 
music and great skill in needlework. 
She pricked her finger with a golden 
needle, and, gathering up the blood on a 
pen, she wrote with it her resolution to 
lead a saintly life. She founded several 
convents, and was distinguished for 
charity and all other virtues. Her con 
fessor wrote her Life, and called her a 
saint. Journal of Countess Krasin^Jci. 

Ven. Christina (\ &lt;&gt; ), Jan. 31. Born 
at Cagliari, JS1 2; -f 1S30. Queen of 
Naples. 

Mary Christina Caroline Josephine 
Gaetana Ephisia of Savoy, daughter of 
Victor Emmanuel I., king of Sardinia. 
Wife of Ferdinand II., king of the 
Two Sicilies. Mother of Francis II., 
last Bourbon king of Naples. She had 
been married nearly four years when she 
died, fifteen days after the birth of her 
only child, and was buried in the Francis 
can church of St. Clara in Naples. Very 
pious and amiable all her life, she dis 
tinguished herself by two reforms in the 
society over which she presided. She 
would not suffer any detraction, swear 
ing, improper stories or conversation at 
her court, nor would she allow any lady to 
appear there in the excessivelylow-necked 
dresses which were then too fashionable. 

Pope Pius IX., in 18.V.&gt;, declared her 
Venerable, and signed the decree intro 
ducing the cause of her canonization. 
In 18&lt;)r&gt; the Congregation of Rites ap 
proved the fame of sanctity attached to 
the virtues and miracles of this venerable 
servant of God, and the Pope confirmed 
their judgment. The cause was again 
before the congregation in 1S73. 

A short Life of her written in Italian 
and translated into English and French. 
Dlario dl ll&lt;n. (iirna1e di JKomo, 
Civilta Cattolica. 



ST. CINTHIA 



181 



St. Christschon, CUNIGUSD i;. 
St. Chrothildis, CLOTILDA. 
St. Chrysai l i, or CHI^HDA, Aug. 24, 
V. M. at &lt; stilt. Also called AVKKA. 

AAJB& 

St. Chrysa ( 2 ), ZLATA. 

St. Chrysanthiana, Feb. IT, M. at 
llonn- with many others. . I. !.&gt; &gt; . 

St. Chrysida, CHKYSA i I i. 

St. Chuchannic, SUSANNA. 

St. Chunegund, CUNEGIM-. 

St. Chunhild, GUNTILD. 

St. Chuniha, CI-NEGUND (3). 

St. Ciara, CKRA. 

St. Cibba, TIBBA. 

St. Cicely, CECILIA. 

St. Cicercula, CEUILLE. 

St. Cilinia &lt; i , Oct. 21 (Cm. INK. 
CM. ISA . ."&gt;th century. Wife of Emilius. 
They were of noble family among the 
Gauls, and of great piety. They had 
three sons St. Principus, bishop of 
-ons ; another, who was father of St. 
Loup, bishop of Soissons after his uncle ; 
and, in their old age, St. Remi, arch 
bishop of JJheims, who, in 41M5, baptized 
&lt; lovis, the first Christian king of the 
Franks. (Sec CLOTILDA (1).) R.M. 
Baillet, Vieg. AA.SS. 

In the Chronicle of Baldwin of Ninove, 
it is related that Montanus, a blind 
monk, foretold the birth of Remi, and 
when his prophecy was fulfilled, he re 
ceived sight by having his eyes washed 
with the milk of Ciliuia. Chron. Belycs, 
ii. i ! .". 

St. Cilinia &lt; 2 ), Oct. 21 (( KLINE, cor 
rupted into 1-iin.MA), V. Born at Meaux, 
about 4:;:&gt;; ( before 530. Confided to 
ST. (iKNKYii.vi: her wish to lead a re 
ligious life. A young man to whom she 
was betrothed would not release her from 
her engagement. One day, when the two 
saints were walking together, ho pursued 
tin-in. They took refuge in a church. 
On his following them there, the doors 
of the baptistery opened at the prayers of 
(M nevirve, and closed again the moment 
the two girls had entered, leaving 
( ilium s lover terrified and converted. 
( ilinia led an exemplary life in Gene- 
vi. vi - Msterlioo.l. .l.l.X.s . Lomaire, 
\ if &gt;!&lt; &gt; /. . (i. ,i&lt; r / /// . I .J!. 

St. Cillonia, May 2&gt;, M. at Home. 
AAJ38. 



SS.Cineria &lt;&gt;r Kr.NNi:u/,or KMKKM &gt;. 
V., Triduana, and Potentia accom 
panied St.; Iirgulus from Coloese, when 
he took the relics of St. Andrew to Scot 
land. 8th century. Forbes, Knl&lt; // /"/&gt; 

St. Cinna, Fob. 1 (CINNE-\&lt;&gt;I:M. i.. 
Holy Cinne, CINNIA, KINNA, KINMA, 

Ul HELLA, RlCHINNE, Rl-ClNNE, i.e. Royijl 

(. in ne). "&gt;th century. ST. HINNA ( _ i 
is perhaps the same. Only daughter of 
Helm, or Echadius, king of Orgiel, or the 
land of Neil, in Ireland. Her father 
would only consent to her taking the veil 
on condition that St. Patrick promised 
him eternal life without compelling him 
to be baptized. St. Patrick promised, 
and, about 480, Ciuna was placed under 
the care of ST. CETAMAUIA, at Druim- 
cluehan, co. Tyrone. She lived there 
many years, and wrought miracles both 
during her life and after her death. 

King Echu, being at the point of death, 
sent for St. Patrick, and gave strict 
orders that he should not bo buried until 
after the arrival of the saint. St. Patrick 
lived at Sabal, near Down, two days 
journey from Echu s residence, but was 
miraculously informed of his death, and 
set out to visit him before the messenger 
arrived at Sabal. Ho was distressed 
that the king, to whom ho had promised 
eternal life, should have died unbaptized, 
but he prayed in faith, and the dead man 
returned to life, was instructed in tho 
Christian religion, and baptized. Ho 
told Patrick that ho had seen the happy 
place prepared for him in heaven, but 
had not been allowed to enter because 
he had not been christened. Patrick 
then asked him whether he would remain 
longer in tho world to which ho had 
been miraculously restored, or go at 
once to tho place of the blessed. Ho 
chose the latter, and died again in p&lt; 
having received the Eucharist. St. Cinna 
is sometimes said to bo sister of St. 
Patrick, but this opinion is rejected by 
tho best authorities. Colgan, AA.SS. 
Lanigan, Eccl. Hist. Ii-&lt;lu&lt;l. 

Cinnenum, KIUIKI.LA, or KICHENNA. 

Mother of several bishops, priests, and 

1 aeons. Called a sister of St. Patrick. 

DAHEHCA (1;.; Compare with ST. 

CKNNA. 

St. Cinthia, Feb. s, V. M. in one 



182 



ST. CIONIA 



of the early persecutions. Represented 
( 1 ) being killed with a sword ; ( 2 ) 
crowned with thorns, and holding a lily, 
near lier a cross and a skull. Guriic- 
bault. Diet. Icon. 

St. Cionia ( 1 &gt;, July :\ M. at Constan 
tinople ; supposed in the time of the 
Emperor Yalens. AA.SS. 

St. Cionia ( 2 ), CHIOMA, etc. (Sec 
AGAPE.) 

St. Cipia, perhaps ST. COPPA. 

St. Ciwg, KEW. 

St. Clara (1), GEGOBEUGA. 

St. Clara (21 or CHIARA, Aug, 12, V. 
c. 11!&gt;2-1 "2 ."&gt;:&gt;, called the Seraphic Mother. 
First nun of the 2nd O.S.F., known as 
Clarissans. Patron of the O.S.F. ; of 
Iglesias, in Sardinia ; of gilders, em 
broiderers, washerwomen, and ironers. 
Invoked against sore eyes. 

Represented ( 1 ) as a mm holding a 
pyx or a lily ; (2) on the rood screen in 
North Elmham Church, with a chaplet 
of flowers in her hand, and a crown of 
lilies on her head. Husenbeth mentions 
a French engraving, in which she ap 
pears trampling on a scimitar, while a 
Turk lies at her feet, a cross planted in 
his turban. She is the symbol of piety ; 
ST. CATHERINE (\) of wisdom, and ST. 
MARY MAGDALENE, of penitence. 

Clara was one of three or more beau 
tiful daughters of Favorino Sciffo, or 
Ciffi, and B. ORTOLANA his wife, wealthy 
citizens of Assisi. She was at the most 
impressionable age when the preaching 
of Francis of Assisi, his numerous con 
versions, and his love of poverty were 
attracting a great deal of attention and 
beginning to revolutionize religious life. 
She longed to see and speak with the 
man who, in the bad and frivolous world, 
was pointing out a new way of salvation. 
He had heard of her angelic qualities, 
and wished to see her. She already 
wore a cilicium, and gently but success 
fully opposed the plans of her parents 
to settle her in marriage. The two 
saints met and consulted, with the result 
that Clara resolved to be a nun. On 
the night of Palm Sunday, 1212, in gala 
dress, she left her home, by a door that 
had long been unused, and was barri 
caded with wood and stone. Accom 
panied by a woman, she went to the 



Portiuncula, where Francis and his 
monks, in solemn order, met her with 
lighted lamps in their hands. Francis 
gave her the rough woollen gown and 
rope of the order, in token of the poverty 
to which she was henceforth dedicated, 
and then gave her into the charge of the 
Benedictine nuns of St. Paul s. Her 
friends and relations tried to persuade 
her to return. She answered that Christ 
had called her to His service, and showed 
them that her hair was cut off, in proof 
of her determination to take the veil. 
They then tried to drag her away by 
force, but she held so fast by the altar 
that their efforts were unsuccessful. 
They regarded the poverty and lowuess 
of a mendicant order as degradation to her 
and disgrace to themselves. But Clara 
had caught the spirit of her teacher, and 
shared his admiration for poverty, and 
her resolve was not to be shaken. 

St. Francis soon removed her to an 
other Benedictine nunnery St. Angelo 
of Pansa, near Assisi. There she was 
joined by her sister AGNES (17). St. 
Francis gave them a poor little new 
house close to the church of St. Damian, 
outside the walls of Assisi, and ap 
pointed Clara the superior. Soon the 
action, which had at first provoked 
scandal and universal reprobation, was 
regarded as a holy example, and the 
tw r o sisters were joined by their mother 
and sixteen other ladies of their kindred 
and acquaintance, three of whom were 
of the great family of the Ubaldini of 
Florence. 

Abstinence, silence, and extreme 
poverty were the distinctive features 
of the Order of Poor Clares. When 
St. Clara inherited great wealth from 
her father, she distributed it all to hos 
pitals and poor persons, and kept nothing 
for her sisterhood, desiring to live on 
charity. She washed the feet of the lay- 
sisters when they returned from begging. 
All the nuns went barefooted, and slept 
on the bare ground. So great was the 
sympathy and friendship between the 
brethren of St. Francis and the sister 
hood of St. Clara, that Francis warned 
his monks lest, God having deprived 
them of wives, the devil should be found 
to have given them sisters. 



ST, CLARA 



IV, 



St. Francis often visited ( lara. teach 
ing and advising her, while ho lived at 
the Portiuncula, and she and her nuns 
at St. Damian s. Sim often entreated 
him to dine with her. He always re 
fused, until his disciples remonstrated, 
representing to him that Clara had re 
nounced the world through his preach 
ing, and was, therefore, his spiritual 
daughter, and that he ought to do this 
little kindness to one BO holy and so 
evidently beloved of (iod. Francis 
therefore confuted to invite Clara to 
dine with him. He thought she would 
like to see g:iin the church of St. Mary 
of the Angels, where she had made her 
monastic vows, so ho ordered a, feast to 
be prepared there. On the appointed 
day scjme of the brothers went to St. 
1 ) . Lillian s to fetch (Mara and one of her 
companions: "Before dinner they looked 
at the church. The table was spread 
on the ground, according to St. Francis 
custom. Clara sat beside him, and her 
friend sat beside one of the brethren, 
i Francis began to speak of God so 
well and so sweetly that they forgot the 
things of the earth. The people of 
Assisi and the surrounding villages saw 
that the church and the wood, which 
then came close up to it, were wrapped 
in flames, but when they came to the 
place they found nothing burning and 
nothing injured. They went into the 
church, and saw Francis and Clara and 
their companions sitting round their 
humble table. Then they understood 
that the fire was the love of God burn 
ing in the hearts of His saints. Clara 
returned to her nuns, to their great 
comfort ; for they had begun to fear that 
Francis might have sent her to preside 
over some other convent, as ho had 
already sent her sister Agnes to Monti- 
&lt;-elli,in Florence; they remembered that 
ho had once bidden Clara prepare her 
self, lest he should want her elsewhere, 
and she had said she was ready to go 
wherever he might wish. Clara was 
twenty-seven at this time, ami Francis 
about ten y.-ars ol.I -r. 

When Francis die&lt;l. ho was carried 
from the I ortiuncula to the cathedral. 
The multitude who gloried in having 
their fellow-citi/.en honoured as a, saint. 



and his holy relics buried amongst them 
were more glad to possess the body of 
a saint than sorry that his gentle spirit 
had departed. When the procession 
camo to the church of St. Damian s, the 
bier was set down in the chancel, that 
Clara and her companions might once 
more look upon the face of their Father 
Francis. Clara kissed his hands, saying, 
" Father, father, what will become of us 
now? Who will comfort us?" The 
nun who owed her conversion to him, 
and who had sympathized in his troubles, 
could not join in the exultation of the 
people. 

Clara s austerity destroyed her health 
and deprived her of the use of her limbs. 
She ruled her convent forty-two years, 
during twenty-eight of which she was 
paralyzed, and used to sit and spin flax 
of wonderful fineness. She died Aug. 
11, IL .V .. 

Her wisdom and piety were widely 
known. Among the miracles recorded 
of her, it is told that once when she had 
only one loaf, she gave half of it to the 
friars, and, on her blessing and dividing 
the remainder, it was found to be enough 
to feed her whole community. Her 
convent was once attacked by a baud of 
Saracens, who formed part of the army 
of the Emperor Frederick. The nuns 
came in terror to their .Mother, who was 
now old, and had not walked or stood 
up for years. She instantly rose up, 
took the pyx from tho altar, placed it 
on the threshold, and, kneeling before it, 
sang with a loud voice tho psalm, " Thou 
hast rebuked the heathen." The terrified 
Moors throw down their arms and fled. 

Innocent IV. visited her immediately 
before her death, and finding she had 
already received tho last sacraments, 
gave her tho apostolic benediction and 
plenary absolution, lie and all his court 
attended her funeral service, contrary to 
tho custom of Popes. Tho Franciscan 
monks wore beginning to sing tho usual 
Mass for tho dead, but tho Tope stopped 
them, and suggested that the Mass of a 
sainted virgin would be more appropriate. 
Tho Cardinal-bishop oi ( &gt;stiu represented 
that it would bo ^irregular, and a bad 
precedent thus to canonize her immedi 
ately after her death. He preached her 



184 



B. CLARA 



funeral oration, and when he succeeded 
to the pontificate as Alexander IV., he 
canonized her in due form two years 
after her death. 

She was first buried at St. Damian s, 
but in 1 20i was translated to St. George s, 
within the walls of Assisi, where the 
Pope had built a new convent for her 
nuns. In 120.") a new church was built 
there ; her body lies under the high 
altar, which was consecrated in her name 
by Clement V. 

She is regarded as the founder of more 
than twelve monasteries of her order in 
Italy, and of many built during her life 
in Germany and other countries. Many 
princesses became Poor Clares. ST. 
AGNES, daughter of the King of Bohemia, 
consulted her about a nunnery of the 
order, which she built at Prague, and 
where she took the veil. 

For extracts from Clara s letters, see 
AGNES OF BOHEMIA. 

Branches of her order are The Urban- 
ists, or Mitigated Clares, so called in 
distinction from the Poor Clares, Capu- 
chinesses, Annunciades, Conceptionists, 
Cordeliers, or grey sisters, Recollects, 
and the austere reformation in Paris 
called the Ave Maria. 

There are eighty-five canonized saints 
of the three orders of Franciscans, 
besides St. Francis himself; of these, 
five are Clarisses St. Clara, St. Agnes 
of Assisi, St. Catherine of Bologna, St. 
Colette, St. Veronica. 

The commemoration of all saints of 
the Order of St. Francis is on the 2 ( ,th 
of November. 

R.N. Butler, Lives. Baillet, Vies. 
Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary 
Art, and Let/ends of the Monastic Orders. 
Montalembert, Moincs d 1 Occident. Vil- 
legas. Vogt, Franciskus. Magliano, 
Franciscan Order. Wadding, Annales. 
Adam King. Mrs. Oliphant, Francis of 
Assisi. Little Flowers of St. Francis, 
edited by Cardinal Manning. 

The family of the Counts of Fiumi of 
Assisi still exist, and are proud of their 
relationship to St. Clara. 

B. Clara (3) Ubaldini, Feb. 27, 
called in the world MADONNA AVVEG- 
NENTE. j- 1 204. Abbess of Monticelli. 
Daughter of Azzo degli Ubaldini. This 



ancient and literary family were lords 
of the greater part of the province of 
Mugello, and gave twelve Saints, Blesseds, 
and Venerables to the Church. Clam 
married the Count Gallura dei Visconti, 
of Pisa, brother of Ubaldo, the archbishop 
who founded the Campo Santo at Pisa, 
in 12( H&gt;. She had several children, one 
was Nino, mentioned by Dante. On the 
death of her husband, she left her children 
to some relations, who promised to take 
care of them. She took the veil at 
Florence, in the convent of Sta. Maria 
di Monticelli, then ruled by ST. A&lt;;xi:s 
SCIKFO. Clara had given the land on 
which this convent was built, in 121 ( ., 
in the village of St. Vito. Many noble 
ladies, following her example, retired 
from the world," among the rest her two 
nieces, BB. JANE and LUCY UBALDINI. 
Avvegnente took the name of Clara, and 
succeeded Agnes as abbess when, in 
12f)o, she was recalled to Assisi to help 
her sister CLARA (2), who was ill. St. 
Francis spent a whole Lent in a cell not 
far from this convent, and left his old 
gown to the nuns, as they made him a 
new one. St. Clara (2) left them her 
veil at her death. Both were kept with 
great veneration. 

The country was in a state of war, 
and the sisters found themselves too far 
from town to get alms or protection, so- 
it was resolved to build them a better 
house nearer the city. It was built near 
Porta Romana alle Fonti. Fifty nuns 
were taken there in procession, with the 
mantle of St. Francis, the veil of St. 
Clara, and the stole in which St. Francis, 
as deacon, had read the Gospel. Bells 
rang of themselves, and continued ring 
ing, until the bones of the nuns from the- 
old cemetery had been deposited in the 
new one. One day there were no pro 
visions. The cellarer came in distress 
to Clara, and by her advice knelt before 
the cross and said, "Lord, for love of 
you I took these keys, having denied my 
own will to follow yours, trusting that 
you would always give me what was 
necessary. Now I have nothing. . . 
Do you provide for us." While she was 
yet speaking, a knock was heard at the 
door, and twenty-five pounds of silver 
were presented by an unknown person, 



ST. CLARA 



185 



immediately disappeared. Clara 
was abbess for about ten years, and died 
Feb. L 7. 1L &gt;4. Brocchi, Santi e Bwiti 
I- "i- nt in /. Razzi, Etruscan Saint*. She 
is mentioned in all the accounts of the 
rise of the Order of St. Francis, and in 
the Life of St. Clara of Assisi. Hen- 
schenius, AA.SS. Boll., Pru-tn-.. writing 
in the 17th century, did not consider her 
worship authorized. 

St. Clara &lt;4), Aug. IS, V., called 
Si. CLARA op THE CROSS, and OF Axiui. 
U7.*)-i:i08. Abbess and patron of 
Montofalco. Of the Order of Hermits 
of St. Augustine. 

I i i -presented (1) holding a pair of 
scales, and a heart pierced with three 
wounds or cut open and showing the 
instruments of the Passion of our 
Saviour J (2) with a lily in one hand, 
and three balls or coins on the palm of 
the other, sometimes the balls arc on 
the scales, two on one, and one on the 
other. 

She was born at Monte Falco, a little 
town about ten miles north of Spoleto. 
Her father s name was Damian, her 
mother s Jacquelina. She had an elder 
sister Jane, who, though scarcely more 
than a child, was leading the life of a 
nun at a place called St. Leonardo, with 
a company of young girls whom she had 
leathered around her, spending all their 
time in devotional practices, though not 
attached to any order. From her earliest 
childhood Clara was religions and self- 
denying, and longed to join her sister s 
little community. At six she was allowed 
to do so, and prepared herself for the 
privilege by excessive austerities. At 
9t Leonard s she fasted rigorously, slept 
on a plauk on the ground, wore a hair 
shirt and the roughest and coarsest 
clothes, and used a scourge. Her sister 
gave her a small oratory, and there she 
had several visions. This community 
of devout children grew until its first 
habitation was too small. The girls on. 
day saw a cross of li^ ht shining over St. 
Catherine s, a neighbouring hill, and a 
procession of nuns passing over the 
summit. They therefore built a humble 
monastery on the spot, which they c&lt;&gt;n- 
:&lt;! was pointed out to them by the 
linger of God. They were in the diocese 



of Spoleto, and they requested the bishop 
to Ljive them a rule ; he gave them that 
of St. Augustine. As they had spent all 
their money in building, they were 
obliged to live by begging. Clara 
volunteered to be one of the mendicants, 
notwithstanding her extreme repugnance 
to the task. She never would pass the 
threshold of a house where she begged, 
but stood outside the door, whatever the 
weather might be. This was partly lest 
she should be tempted to break the rule 
of silence. The sisters, finding her worn 
out with the fatigue of her expeditions, 
changed her duties, and kept her in the 
house. She sought the hardest and 
lowest work, she helped any overworked 
sister. She became more and moro 
detached from the world. She imposed 
severe penances on herself for every sin 
into which she fell ; for instance, having 
spoken without sufficient necessity, sho 
punished herself by standing barefooted 
in ice-cold water while she repeated the 
Lord s Prayer a hundred times. Jane 
fell ill, and was restored to health for a 
while by the prayers of Clara. Eight 
years after the building of the monastery 
on St. Catherine s Hill, Jane, who had 
been its superior all that time, died. 
Clara saw in a vision that her sister had 
entered into eternal life. Clara was 
chosen abbess in her sister s place. Sho 
abated nothing of her self-mortification, 
nor of her dislike and avoidance of the 
parlour, though this was very grievous 
to the ladies of tho neighbourhood, who 
loved to come and gossip to the nuns. 
I hit sho provided well for the bodily 
needs of her nuns, lest their spiritual 
life should suffer from earthly cares and 
the fear of too great privation. Once 
when that part of Umbria was suffering 
from famine, angels in visible forms 
brought baskets of bread to tho sister 
hood, and this supply lasted until tho 
famine was over. Her charity to tho 
poor and tho sick was unbounded, and 
for love of tho faithful departed not yet 
resting in peace, sho had tho OUice of 
the Dead recited daily in the choir. Her 
devotion to the Passion of our Lord was 
the ruling motive of her life. It was 
always in her thoughts and in her in 
structions to her nuns. She prayed that 



186 



ST. CLARA 



she might see in spirit all tha t He had 
suffered on Calvary and on the road to 
Calvary. Her wish to realize what lie 
had undergone was fulfilled. She felt 
the thorns piercing her head with 
agonizing sharpness, the taste of vinegar 
and gall was in her mouth, she felt the 
nails tearing through her hands and 
feet, the pain and weariness of the 
scourging, the shame of nakedness, the 
shrinking from death. All these she 
realized, so that more than any other 
saint she bore about in her body the 
marks of the death of Jesus Christ. 

Once a nun interrupted Clara s exhor 
tation by saying, " You promised that if 
we would meditate diligently on the 
Passion, we should have the comfort of 
realizing the sufferings of our Lord ; but 
I have never experienced anything of 
the sort." Upon this, Clara had a mo 
mentary feeling either of vanity or 
impatience. She did not consent to the 
temptation, but she did not repel it so 
instantly and entirely as one so favoured 
ought to have done. That moment her 
Lord withdrew from her the grace she 
had for a moment abused. An appalling 
spiritual desolation took possession of 
her soul; she was beset by scruples, 
weariness, suggestions of the devil, blas 
phemous or unclean. In vain she re 
doubled her austerities. In vain she 
begged the prayers of pious souls. God 
seemed to have forsaken her. She took 
no delight in prayer, she had no visions, 
she had no certainty that she was not a 
lost soul. This went on for eleven 
years, and then her punishment was over, 
and there was a great calm in her soul. 
Visions and revelations were granted to 
her ; she wrought miracles ; she pro 
phesied events which afterwards occurred. 
She lived for months entirely without 
food. She again had those ecstasies 
which had ceased for so many years. 
One of them lasted for twenty-seven 
days. Sick and even dead persons were 
brought to be restored by her prayers. 
Such was the fame of her sanctity, her 
miracles, and the wonders she saw in 
heavenly visions, that numbers of persons 
came from all parts of the country to 
see her. Christ told her He would plant 
His cross in her heart, and she told her 



nuns they would find the cross of Jesus 
engraven there. She was told in her 
visions that her years of anguish had 
preserved many persons from impenitent 
death, and that her repentance had washed 
away all stain of sin. In August, l. lus, 
she lay dying for many days, happy at 
the gates of Paradise. Twice during 
her life she received the Holy Com 
munion from the hands of Christ Him 
self. 

After her death her dead body was 
opened, and the heart was found to have 
a skin of unnatural hardness. On being 
cut open, it displayed on the right side 
a little picture of Christ on the cross, 
about the size of a thumb ; on the 
left, miniature effigies of the other 
instruments of the Passion, not mere 
pictures, for the lance was quite sharp. 
Berengarius, the vicar-general, commis 
sioned by the Bishop of Spoleto to assist 
at the examination, pricked his finger 
with it. In her intestines were found 
three globules of equal weight. This 
phenomenon showed her devotion to the 
Holy Trinity, as the state of the heart 
showed her constant contemplation of 
the Passion of our Lord. 

She was locally worshipped as a saint 
from the time of her death. Her canoni 
zation was begun in the 14th century, 
by John XXII. Urban VIII. (HJi&gt;:J- 
1644) published the bull for her beatifi 
cation. Her canonization was only com 
pleted in 1 (SSI, under Pius IX., nearly 
(500 years after her death. Her body lies 
in a shrine behind the high altar of the 
church dedicated in her name at Monte- 
falco, where the sacristan will allow the 
devout traveller to see her thin form in 
the black dress of her order, the face 
visible, beautiful, and peaceful, with eyes 
closed as if in living, breathing sleep. 
The miraculous heart and other relics 
are also shown. Whenever a great 
calamity threatens the Church, her blood, 
which is dried up in a bottle, liquefies 
and bubbles the greater the calamity, 
the longer it boils. This happened at 
the beginning of the Reformation of 
Luther and Calvin, and at the beginning 
of the He volutions of 1847-41". 

In the process of her canonization 
under Pius IX., it was proved that she 



Ji. CLAKA 



lius moved her bead, hands, and feet of 
lato years. 

11. M. Baronins, Annali-s, !:; -. Cup-r. 
in .!.!.. I M 11. Butler, Lives. Aim- 
/trtft. i. p. 150U. Vaughan. Neligan, 
&gt; (!///// C/i iracters recently presented for 
fioii, 1859. Collier. Husenboth, 
A ////// /i, x. Rev. William Lloyd, Saint* 
// L881. Cornhill Mayazine, Oct., 1881, 
"May in Umbria," by Mr. Y. A. 
Symunds. 

B. Clara (5) (CHIAIIKTTA, CHI AIM - 
&lt; IA i and B. ILLUMINATA i&gt;i (imv \S\KI.I.O, 
\\ere lay-sisters under ST. CLAKA OF 
ICoNTKFALOO. Jacobilli, S&lt;inti iti ir I ni- 
bria. 

B. Clara &gt;), Jan. 22, of Rimini. 
f Feb. 1", L32& :5rd O.S.F. A very 
young widow, frivolous and ambitious, 
beautiful, selfish, luxurious, accom 
plished. She seemed to have no heart. 
The misfortunes of her family and 
country were matter of indifference to 
JUT ; she only cured to amuse and indulge 
herself. One day, passing the church of 
tin Franciscans, she felt an impulse to 
enter, contrary to her custom. With 
her beautiful hand, she took holy water 
as a matter of course. An interior voice 
said, " Clara, say one Pater and one Ave 
from your heart, without thinking of any 
thing else." She did so, and began to 
repent. She did not tell anybody that 
she was converted, but shut the door on 
her admirers, left off her gay clothes, 
fed on bread and water, but first roasted 
a nasty creature, and compelled herself 
it it, saying to herself, " Now, glut 
ton, eat this tit-bit." She went bare 
footed, and wore cords of iron around 
her neck, arms, and knees. A cuirass 
! in in worn by her is still preserved at 
Rimini. She spent whole nights in 
prayer. In Lent, for thirty years, she 
prayed in a hole in an old wall 
to rain and cold. She carried 
wood to the poor. Her earnest prayer 
and deep contrition were rewarded by a 
great power of converting sinners; one 
of h-r (nvi-rts was a widow whoso life 
had IM en like ( hint s; one was a usurer 
of Rimini. Her sanctity In-came so well 
known that &lt;1&lt; -voiit persons desired to 

be dirert.-d l,y her. Slio built thelllol.:is 

of our Lady of the Angels. She 



did not shut herself up, but went about 
working as a charwoman. She was dis 
tinguished for wisdom in her life, and 
miracles after death. She was buried 
in her monastery. 

Pius VI. approved, in 17S4, the wor 
ship already paid to her at Rimini. 

Bussy, Cour tisanes Dewnues Suintes. 
Civilt t Cnttolica, v. 277. Ordcmka- 
l&gt; a ilar. Prayer-book of the Order of 
St. Francis. 

St. Clara ( 7 ) of India, or THACLKAI- 
M \NOTH, July 2. 14th century. When 
India was divided into forty-seven Chris 
tian kingdoms, King Seiosaflam reigned 
over one of them, and lived at Scova, the 
capital of all India. He spent a glorious 
life fighting against all unbelievers and 
heretics, and won the palm of martyrdom 
on the field of battle. He had a beautiful 
daughter, named Zemedemarea, which 
means Fair, Clear, Illustrious. Under 
very wonderful circumstances she became 
a Dominican nun, translating her name 
to Clara. She lived in her convent for 
fifty years, never eating or drinking 
except on Sundays, always sleeping on 
ashes, never seeing her own skin, and 
never washing. She preached to the 
people in the Chaldean language. Sin- 
died about 1, Wo, and was highly vene 
rated all over India. Pio, Vom&HGt* 
Saints. Razzi, Predicatori, Florence, 
i:&gt;77. The Bollandists allude to the 
story as an absurd fable. 

B. Clara (s), April 17. t 14l!l - 
Daughter of Peter Gambacorta, governor 
of Pisa for twenty-four years. She had 
a brother, B. Peter of Pisa, founder of a 
congregation of the Order of St. Jerome. 
She was christened TIIOKA or Tin -.01 M.I: \, 
and married at six or seven to Simon de 
Massa. Her voluntary fasts were so 
strict that she suffered excessive pain 
from hunger. When she was twelve, 
her charity and liberality were so ex 
treme that her father-in-law locked up all 
his goods, lest she should give them to 
the poor. She accompanied her father 
when, in 1^7"&gt;, ho wont with the arch 
bishop and the principal citizens of Pisa 
t&lt;&gt; receive ST. CATHKUINK OF SIENA, 
whom they had invited to nurse and 
convert in the plague-stricken city of 
Thora was much impressed and 



188 



B. CLARA 



influenced by this great saint, and was 
destined to effect the reform of the 
Dominican convent life so much desired 
by Catherine. When she was fifteen, she 
was dangerously ill in the absence of her 
husband. He died, and no one in the 
house dared to tell her. She anticipated 
the tidings by telling her father she 
heard an unusual sound of bells, and 
knew they were tolling for her husband s 
death. She soon recovered, and betook 
herself to the Franciscan convent of St. 
Martin, without consulting her family. 
They were very angry, and her brothers 
went with a number of armed men and 
broke open the gate. The terrified nuns 
immediately gave up their novice, and 
carried her into the church. It was 
then found that she had lost the use of 
her limbs, but this was restored on her 
being allowed to remain a nun. To 
prevent her going to one of the Francis 
can convents at Rome, her brothers shut 
her up in a small room without a bed or 
the commonest comforts. In course of 
time, her father permitted her to join a 
sisterhood of Dominican nuns, where she 
took the veil and the name of Clara. 
He afterwards founded a small convent 
of the same order, at Pisa, of which 
she became prioress. Her sanctity was 
attested by miracles, both during her 
life and after her death. Her imme 
morial worship was confirmed by Pius 
VIII. R.M. Dominican Martyrology. 
Papebroch, in AA.SS. From MS. by a 
contemporary nun. Pio, Hist. Dom. 
Saints. Mrs. Drane, Catherine of Siena. 
The important part taken by her family 
in the history of Pisa is told by Sismondi, 
Italian Republics, iv. 

B. Clara (!&gt;;, Sept. in. Put to death 
in 1(&gt;22, at Nagasaki, in Japan, with 
her husband, Domingo Xamada, or Ya- 
manda, on the same day as BB. Spinola 
and LUCY FREITAS. 

SS. Clara (10) and Magdalene, 
MM. 17th century. Beheaded in 
Japan for the Christian faith, with their 
father and mother, Michael and Ursula, 
and a little brother. Honoured in the 
Mcnoloyy of Lahcrius, but not by the 
authority of the Church. AA.SS. 

B. Clara (11), Dec. 2:&gt;. f i;4s. 
B. CLARA BOURRELIKRE, or CLARA OF THE 



CROSS. O.S.D. A native of Dijon. 
When she was seven years old, the 
Child Jesus appeared to her with a heavy 
cross, and wanted her heart to plant the 
cross in, as He meant to make her a new 
Job. When very ill, she was very pious ; 
when better, she became lukewarm in 
her love of God. The company of other 
young ladies distracted her. St. John 
the Evangelist appeared to her with a 
bandage on his eyes, because he had 
wept so much about her relapse. She 
became a nun in the monastery of St. 
Catherine of Siena, at Dijon. The devil 
afflicted her with frightful temptations 
against innocence, faith, etc. She had 
the gift of prophecy, and foretold the 
birth of Louis XIV. long before the 
queen had any expectation of becoming 
a mother. Lima, Agiologio Dom. 

Ven. Clara (12; of Jesus, Jan. 20 
(TREVOR HANMEU, LADY WARNER;. IGtfG 
107o. O.S.F. Baptized by the name of 
Trevor, after her godfather. Her father, 
Thomas Ilanmer, held a good appoint 
ment at the court of Charles I. ; her 
mother, Elizabeth Baker, was maid of 
honour to Queen Henrietta Maria. Both 
were of the Anglican Church. After 
their marriage, they lived at his country 
house, Hanmer, in Wales, and there 
Trevor was born. When Cromwell 
usurped the power, and persecuted the 
royalists and the Anglican Church, the 
Hanmers were obliged to emigrate. 
They lived for some time in a Roman 
Catholic family in Paris, where Mrs. 
Hanmer died. Thomas Haumer then 
brought his daughter back to England, 
and married her, in lt&gt;.V.&gt;, to Sir John 
Warner, of Parham, in Suffolk, who, 
like themselves, was of the Anglican 
reform. Trevor had, however, imbibed 
Catholic ideas, and her brother, who had 
fled to Lisbon, had abjured the doctrines 
of the Reformation, and kept exhorting 
her to do the same. In 1GG4 Sir John 
Warner, and his wife Trevor, Lady 
Warner, became Roman Catholics, and 
from that time lived a pious and ascetic 
life, and resolved to become monk and 
nun as soon as they had set their affairs 
in order. This they did. He became a 
Jesuit ; she joined the English Clares at 
Gravelines, and took the name of Clara 



ST. CLEOPATRA 



IS!) 



of Josus. She died in the convent at 
the age of thirty-three, Jan. 2ii, h&gt;7". 
She had a niece, Elizabeth Warner, a 
nun in the same convent, under the name 
of Marie Claire, who died in the odour 
of sanctity, Feb. 28, 1(&gt;H2. P. F. X. de 
Ram, Jluijinhyie National*, Vies des 
/ . tc., daw les Ancicns Provinces 
Bulges. 

St. Claridonia, CHELIDOSIA. 

Clarissa Mariscotti, ST. HYA 
CINTH. 

St. Clarissima, Jan. i:&gt;, M. in 
Greece, under Diocletian. Probably 
same as EPIPHANIA, July 12. 

St. Claudia (1), Aug. 7 false called 
PKISCII i. \. K rriNA, SABINKI.LA ). *f 9&lt;. 
Of noble birth in Britain, she was sent 
tlu nee as a hostage to Rome, with her 
Christian parents, in the reign of Clau 
dius. There she married Aulns Pudons, 
a senator of birth equal to her own. 
They received St. Peter in their house, 
where he baptized Pudcns. Claudia 
was the mother of SS. Novatus, Timothy, 
PRAXKDIS, and PUPENTIANA. After a 
long and virtuous life, she died at an 
estate of her husband s at Sabinum, in 
Umbria ; her body was taken to Rome 
by her children, and laid in the tomb of 
their father Pudens. AA.SS. Wilson, 
English Mart. Broughton, Eccl. Hist, of 
Brit. 

By another account her husband s 
name was Rtifus Pudens, who, being a 
Christian, was sent away from Rome, 
and ordered to live in Britain. He 
there married a fair princess, named 
Claudia. After a time, Pudens was 
recalled to Kome ; Claudia accompanied 
him, [and took the name of RUFINA. 
They wero in Rome when St. Paul was 
1 &gt;r&lt; night before Nero the second time, 
and they sent greetings to St. Timothy 
Tim. iv. 21 ). The Pudens and 
Claudia of St. Paul are, however, not 
necessarily man and wife, as both names 
were common. 

St. Claudia ,(2), Jan. 2, M. in Ethi 
opia or Jerusalem, with AUBIGA and 
Uriii.A. AA.SS. from St. Jer&lt; 
Marty rology. 

St. Claudia &lt; :; &gt;, Jan. 2, M. AA.SS. 

St. Claudia (4), March 2&lt;&gt;, M. 
Companion of AI.KX \MUIA ( *). R.M. 



St. Claudia (:.), May 2S, M. in 
Galatia. AA.SS. 

St. Claudia ( .), May is, V. M. 
with ST. THECUSA. 

St. Claudia (7), Dec. 14, V. M. at 
Rome. Her body is preserved in the 
church of the Twelve Apostles there. 
History unknown. Ferrarius. 

St. Claudia (H), Jan. 12, Dec. 27. 
Mother of ST. EUGENIA. AA.SS. t Jan. 
12, Prseter. P.P. 

St. dementia (1), April 12, M. 
AAJ3S. 

St. dementia (2), May 2H, March 
21. "fin*). Daughter of Adolphus, 
count of Hohenberg (Bucelinus says 
Homberg). Married Crafton, son of 
Meginhardt, count of Spanheim, and, 
with his consent, took the veil in the 
convent of Horres, at Treves ; died in 
great reputation for sanctity. Her name 
is in several monastic martyrologies, but 
she is not canonized. Crafton became 
abbot of Spanheim. Bucelinus calls 
him " Venerable," and dementia " Saint." 
AA.SS., Pr&tcr., March 21. 

St. Clementiana, Dec. 17. Formerly 
honoured at Carthage. 

St. Cleomata, a companion of ST. 
UKHULA. 

St. Cleopatra (1), Oct. 19. f c. 319. 
In the persecution under Diocletian and 
Maximian, seven holy men were im 
prisoned in Egypt. St. Varus, a soldier 
of Maximian s army, ministered daily 
to their wants. One of them died, and 
Yarns took his place, that ho might be 
numbered with the martyrs. Maximian, 
hearing of it, had him beaten and tor 
tured to death. A certain woman of 
Palestine, named Cleopatra, not daring 
openly to confess herself a Christian, 
went by night, with her son of twelve, 
and her servants, took away the body of 
Varus, embalmed it, and dug a grave 
under her bed, and buried him there. 
When the persecution ceased, and the 
Christians had peace, Cleopatra pur 
posed to return to her own country. 
MM- went to the governor, and said, 
" My husband was a very distinguished 
soldier, and did good service in the wars, 
but he is dead, and lies here, and has 
never yet received the funeral honours 
due to him. Therefore 1 pray your 



190 



ST. CLEOPATRA 



highness that I may take him away and 
give him proper burial." Tfle governor 
granted her request, in consideration of 
a large sum of money. St. Cleopatra, 
however, left her husband in Egypt, 
took St. Varus out of the ground, put 
more spices and a rich robe round him, 
and put him in a sack, with a quantity 
of wool, so that no one might suspect 
what she was carrying off, or attempt 
to steal the martyr s body. For at this 
time the Christians were beginning to 
take courage to collect the remains of 
the saints, and place them in the mon 
asteries and raise monuments in their 
honour. She buried him in the tomb 
of her fathers, near Mount Tabor, and 
adorned the sepulchre with lamps. It 
very soon appeared that a saint was 
buried there, for whoever went to the 
tomb was cured of whatsoever disease 
he had, so that great multitudes came, 
and there was no room for them in the 
tomb. Then Cleopatra determined to 
build a church on the spot. She made 
arrangements to send her young son to 
the Emperor s court, that he might be 
brought up as a soldier. This cost her 
a great sum of money, but still she had 
enough to build a church. When it 
was finished, she invited all the bishops 
and clergy she could collect, and a great 
number of other Christians ; they made 
a grand religious ceremony. She dressed 
her son for the occasion in a robe and 
girdle which had been laid on the body 
of St. Varus. Cleopatra prayed to the 
martyr that he would remember her 
and her child before God, and that, as 
she had suffered much in the persecu 
tion, and had taken so much trouble to 
hide his sacred body and to honour him 
by building a church, he would impute 
her good works to her boy, and obtain 
for him health and salvation and favour 
with the Emperor. As the guests de 
parted, the child was smitten with fever. 
The distracted mother did her utmost 
to revive him, but without avail. She 
took him in her arms, and held him in 
her lap until midnight, when he died. 
She then took him to the church, and 
reproached the saint for giving such an 
unkind return for her good works, and 
such a disappointing answer to her 



prayers. She told him that God had 
raised many dead persons to life, and 
conjured him to procure also the resus 
citation of her son, or else to take her 
also. The boy was a great favourite. 
The servants, priests, and neighbours 
wept all day with the bereaved mother, 
and grieved that she had not received 
a worthy reward for her piety. At mid 
night she sank exhausted over her child, 
and fell asleep. St. Varus appeared to 
her, leading her boy by the hand ; they 
were both girt with golden bands, and 
wore cloaks that seemed to be made of 
light. Their brooches shone like stars, 
and they had crowns of stars on their 
heads. Cleopatra was frightened, and 
prostrated herself at their feet. St. 
Varus bade her arise. He reproached 
her for supposing him ungrateful for 
all her care, and tho risks she had run 
for his sake, and told her that, in grati 
tude for her having placed him in the 
tomb of her family, he had obtained 
salvation from God for her and her son. 
Then he went on to say, " Why do you 
reproach me ? Did you not entreat me, 
when you bnilt your church, to pray 
that God would write your son s name 
among those of His firstborn ? Did you 
not pray that he might have an illus 
trious rank in the army? Have I not 
obtained him a place in the grandest of 
all armies ? Did not you ask peace and 
glory for him, and do you not see that 
he has them ? And now take him back 
if you will." The child entreated that 
he might not be sent back to the sinful 
world. To his mother he said, " Can 
a mother envy her child, and wish to- 
take him out of the royal court and 
place him in poverty and darkness ? " 
Cleopatra besought them to take her 
with them. They answered, " You are 
still with us while you remain in your 
place, and we will come for you when 
God wills." Tho child s body was still 
in her arms. They bade her bury it 
beside the martyr. She awoke, and told 
her dream to her friends and servants, 
took a white robe and spices and em 
balmed her child, and laid him beside 
St. Varus. All her female friends 
advised her to dress him in the cloak 
he had worn at the dedication of tho 



ST. CLOTILDA 



191 



church, for they said, if she kept it, it 
would bo a melancholy reminiscence of 
her loss. But she would not. She 
begged them to be present the next day, 
that she might celebrate a festival in 
honour of her son s assumption into the 
army of angels. After the ceremony 
she waited on her guests with great 
appearance of joy. The two saints 
again appeared to her on Sunday. After 
seven years, during which they fre 
quently visited her in divers manifesta 
tions of glory, Cleopatra died, and was 
buried 1&gt;. -id.- her child and St. Yarns. 
Benjamin Bossue, in AA.SS. 

St. Cleopatra i - ), Oct. 2&lt;. Nun in 
Muscovy. 

Represented in a nun s dress, with a 
little boy in the dress of a nobleman. 
But possibly the picture represents 
( i.i:&lt;r\n;A ( 1). 

It is conjectured that the Russian 
( hopatra was martyred by the Tartars, 
who made depredations in Russia, under 
liattus, or Batyrus, in 1241. She ap 
pears, Oct. 2o, in a Russian calendar 
given AA.SS., Maii, vol. i. See note to 
Ci.Koi-ATKA i 1 ), Oct. 1S. AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Cleopatronia, March 8 (CLEO- 
I ATKiNA, Kri-ATKoMA ), V. Beginning 
of 1th century. Daughter of Dacian, 
governor of Asia Minor, in the time of 
Diocletian. She was possessed by a 
devil for eighteen years. St. Viventius, 
having been converted by the miracles and 
martyrdom of St. George, was directed 
in a dream to go to Thessalonica, or, 
according to other accounts, to Antioch, 
to preach the gospel, destroy idols, and 
cast the devil out of Cleopatronia, who 
thereafter devoted herself entirely to the 
- rvice of Christ, giving all she had to 
the poor and to the persecuted Chris 
tians. She sent some vestments to St. 
\ iventius, by St. Benedict, when these 
saints tl d to limno from the persecution 
i Dacian. Benedict is honoured Oct. 
2 :; ; Viventius, Jan. i:j. AA.SS. 

St. Cleridona, CHKUIXIA. 

Cleta, Sept. 2;;, V. M,I,-I. ../" 7V A . 
Prater. 

St. Clether gives name to a church 
and village in Cornwall. Parker. 

St. Cliamine, FI.\MIM\. 

St. Clodechildis, CI.OULDA . i &gt;. 



St. Clodeswide, GI.I&gt;KSIND. 
St. Closind, GLODMDID. 

St. Closseinde i I &gt;, (H. &gt;I&gt;I&gt;IND. 

St. Closseinde (2), CLOTS IM 

St. Clossind, GLODESIND. 

St. Clotilda 1 i, June u (OH** 
IIIIHLDIS, CHLOTICHILDA, CLODK&lt; mi .ni&gt;. 
Cu-M i n.i,.( KOTE-HILD, HLOTILD, RHOTII.I&gt; ; 
there are many other forms of the name). 
47.W&gt;4.~&gt;. First Queen of France. Patron 
saint of France, of Paris, of les Andelys. 
Founder of the monastery of St. Mary 
of les Audelys, in Touraine, and of that 
of Chelles. Daughter of Chilperic, king 
of the Burgundians. Wife of Clovis, 
first Christian king of the Franks. 
Mother of Kings Clodomir, Childebert, 
and Clothaire I., and of Clotilda, queen 
of the Visigoths. Represented (1) as a 
queen, praying ; (2 ) as a nun, with a 
crown on her head or beside her. 

In the Jledford Mitsal, described by 
its custodian as the most valuable book 
in the British Museum, is a beautiful 
and brilliant representation of the grant 
ing of the lilies to Clovis. The picture 
is probably by Van Eyck (Waagen, Tn &lt;/- 
tui ! of Art, i. 12S). It is in three 
parts : the upper division shows God 
the Father between two angels, to one 
of whom He is giving a blue robe orna 
mented with three ileurs-de-lys ; in the 
middle part, an aged man, wearing the 
halo of a saint and kneeling at Clotilda s 
feet, presents the robe to her, ladies 
stand behind her, holding her train ; 
the third scene represents Clotilda pre 
senting to Clovis, armed and crowned, a 
shield on which she has stretched the 
bluo robe, displaying its three large 
golden fleurs-de-lys, she wears a crown 
and a halo. This book was made for 
John, duke of Bedford, brother of Henry 
V., and given by him and his wife Anno 
of Burgundy, to Henry VI. of England, 
on his being crowned King of Franco, in 
1 l::i. 

Chilperic, the father of Clotilda, was 
one of four brothers who were at tho 
same time kings of the Burgundians, 
another of the four was Gundobald, who 
possessed himself of the whole power by 
murdering all his brothers. With Chil 
peric were massacred his wife and sons. 
JIN two daughters were brought up at 



192 



ST. CLOTILDA 



the court of Gundobald. They were 
educated as Catholics, although the king, 
like most of the Burgundians, was an 
Arian. 

In 492 or 4 .:i Clotilda was married 
at Soissons. On her journey thither she 
set fire to every village for the last two 
leagues of her uncle s country, and when 
she crossed the frontier at Chalons, she 
looked Lack upon the flames and thanked 
God that her vengeance was begun. A 
year after her marriage, Clotilda had a 
son, and obtained her husband s consent 
to have him christened. The child im 
mediately died. Clovis was angry, and 
said this misfortune had happened be 
cause his wife had placed her son under 
the care of an inefficient God. The 
following year the queen had another 
son, and again persuaded the king to let 
him be baptized. The infant was taken 
-dangerously ill, and Clovis bitterly re 
proached his wife with sacrificing his 
children to her gods and priests. But 
the agonized prayers of the mother were 
answered by the speedy recovery of the 
babe. Not long after this, in 49t&gt;, Clovis 
fought against the Alemanni, at Tolbiac. 
The battle was going against him, when 
he remembered the God of Clotilda, and 
turning to Him in his need, vowed that 
if He would give him this victory, he 
would worship no other thenceforward. 
That moment the enemy turned and fled, 
and at the same time tradition says that 
three white lilies were brought by an 
angel to Clotilda while she prayed. 
These Clovis substituted for the three 
frogs which had previously been the 
badge on his shield. In the same year 
he took Paris. ST. GENEVIKVE advised 
the Parisians to submit to the King of 
the Franks. At the same time she be 
spoke his clemency, and joined with 
-Clotilda in urging him to fulfil his vow 
and become a Christian. He was bap 
tized at Rheims by St. Renri (sec CILI- 
MA (1 i ), with his sister Alboflede, and 
three thousand of his warriors. 

Clovis was a great acquisition to the 
Catholic party. Pope Anastasius II. 
sent him a letter of congratulation (pre 
served by Bouquet), in which ho styled 
him "Most Christian King," and the 
" Eldest son of the ( hurch." The Em 



peror of the East sent him a crown, and 
made him consul. In .")(( &gt; ho accom 
plished part of Clotilda s vengeance by 
making war on the Burgundians, defeat 
ing Gundobald at Dijon, and annexing 
part of his dominions. In f&gt;&lt;&gt;7 he went 
to war with the Arian Visigoths in Aqui- 
taine ; their king, Alaric II., was killed 
in the battle of Vouille, or Voullon, near 
Poitiers. Many years afterwards, Amal- 
aric, son of this Alaric, married Clotilda, 
the daughter of Clovis and Clotilda (1). 
Having made himself master of the 
whole of France by conquest and by 
crime, he did what before him none of 
the barbarian conquerors of the Roman 
empire had done. He set himself to 
restore order in the lauds he had ac 
quired, and to have them governed by 
humane and equitable laws. He died 
Nov. 27, "ill, and was buried in Paris, 
in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, 
which he had built. St. Gene vie ve was 
buried there in the same year, and the 
church was afterwards called by her 



Clotilda had never thoroughly slaked 
her thirst for vengeance against her 
uncle. She desired her son Clodomir to 
go and revenge on Sigismund the son 
and successor of Gundobald the crimes 
his father had committed nearly half a - v 
century before. Clodomir defeated Sigis 
mund, and put him to flight. St. Avitus, 
abbot of Micy, solemnly warned Clodo 
mir to be content with his victory, and 
not murder his near relations, promising 
him success in his future wars on that 
condition. But Clodomir, obeying the 
letter and spirit of his mother s orders, 
took Sigismund, his wife, and two chil 
dren to Orleans, his capital, and buried 
them alive. The next year Clodomir s . 
head was carried on the end of a lance 
along the ranks of the Burguudian army. 
His brother Charibert added his widow 
to the wives he had already, and Clotilda 
adopted his children. Charibert and 
Clothaire had no idea of keeping their 
brother s kingdom for these infants. 
They divided his domains between them 
selves, and sent a message to their 
mother to send them the three little 
boys, that they might at once make them 
kings. The fond grandmother gave up 



B. CLOTILDA 



108 



the children, and a few days afterward &lt; 
her sons sent her a sword and a pair of 
scissors, bidding her choose. Her in 
dignation blazed out. ** My grandchil-l 
dren, the .irnindsons of a great warrion 
like Clovis, shaven monks? Never! 
Death a thousand times rather ! " Hen 
sons gave her no time to reconsider! 
They murdered with their own hands 
their brother s children two little boys 
of eight and ten, who kneeled at their 
feet and begged for mercy. The third 
disappeared. The attendants were ques 
tioned in vain ; no one would own to 
having aided or seen his escape. He 
remained long concealed. He cut off his 
hair, thus renouncing all claim to the 
throne. He grew up in a monastery in 
Provence, and, after many years, came 
to Paris, and thence to Nogent, near 
which ho built a monastery, which after 
wards became a great collegiate church, 
and was called after him, St. Cloud, one 
of the many forms of Clovis or Louis. 

About the time of the murder of her 
grandchildren, Clotilda s daughter and 
namesake was married to Amalaric, the 
Arian king of the Visigoths, who ill- 
treated her. She sent her brothers a 
veil stained with her blood. Childebert 
was delighted to go and fight Amalaric 
and pillage his towns. He brought 
( lotilda away with him, but she died on 
her way to Paris. 

The elder Clotilda spent most of her 
remaining life at Tours, she and her 
husband having had a great devotion to \ 
St. Mint in. She prayed and fasted and I 
w -j.t, and gave all she had to the Church I 
and to the poor. While she was living / 
there, withdrawn from the world, her 
son and stepson brought home from the 
wars in Thiiringia two royal children as 
captives, one of whom, ST. RADEKUND, 
became the wife of her youngest son. 
In her last illness Clotilda sent for her 
two sons Childebert and Clothaire, and 
exhorted them to lead a godly and 
virtuous life. She died June :{, 545, 
and was buried at the feet of St. Gene- 
vi. ve, in the church of SS. Peter and 
Paul, where Clovis had been laid more 
than thirty years before. 

Besides Les Andelys, she built a 
church in honour of St. George, with 



some cells for nuns, at Chelles, near 
Paris. It was magnificently refouudod 
in the next century by Si. HMHILDE, 
wife of Clovis II., and was a great and 
wealthy abbey down to modern times. 
It was for many years a great place of 
resort and education for English prin 
cesses, many of whom descended from 
Clovis and Clotilda, through ST. BEKTHA, 
queen of Kent. 

On Nov. 30, 1857, a grand new church 
in Paris, under the invocation of St. 
Clotilda, was opened with a solemn 
service by the cardinal-archbishop. 

Gregory of Tours is the great con 
temporary authority, and is quoted by 
all the modern histories and lives. 
Sismondi, Hist, drs Frangais, I. Le 
Glay, Gaule Belgique. Bouquet, Receuil 
de MonmmenU. 

St. Clotilda (li), a reputed sister of 
IHMINA and ADELA, daughters of Dago- 
bert II. 

B. Clotilda (:!), March 7. 1759-1802. 
MARIE ADELAIDE CLOTILDE XAVIEB DE 
BOUUHON was queen of Sardinia ; grand 
daughter of Louis XV., king of France 
(1715-1774); sister of Louis XVI., 
Louis XVIII. , and Charles X. She 
married Charles Emmanuel II., who 
succeeded his father, Victor Amadeus, as 
king of Sardinia, in 179(3. Her husband 
and father-in-law were much attached to 
the Bourbons and the ancient reyimi . 
Two of Charles Emmanuel s sisters were 
married to two of Clotilda s brothers, and 
when the revolution spread from France 
to Piedmont, they became refugees at 
the court of Turin. 

In 17J:-J, Louis XVI., his sister, 
Madame Elizabeth, and Queen Marie 
Antoinette were beheaded, after which 
( lotilda always wore a penitential 
mounting dress, as one stricken of God 
and desiring no more to partake of the 
pomps and vanity of the world. In Dec., 
IT .Mi, the same year in which she be 
came queen, she and her husband left 
their palace and Turin, their capital, and 
the following spring they went to Sar 
dinia, where the Court remained until 
the downfall of Napoleon in 1H14. 
Clotilda died at Homo in 1802. Pius 
VII. know and admired her in her life. 
In 180H he declared her "Venerable," 



194 



ST. CLOTSEND 



and signed the commission wh^ch autho 
rized the Congregation of Rites to take 
measures for her canonization. It has 
not, however, been carried through. 

Predari, Dinastia di Savoia. Scott, 
Life of Napoleon. Yonge, Marie Antoi 
nette. Civiltd Cattolica. Diario di Roma. 

Visitors to Turin in 1851 were shown 
Clotilda s oratory. The attendant ex 
pressed great tenderness and devotion to 
her memory, and said that she was un 
doubtedly a saint, and would certainly 
soon be worshipped as such throughout 
the world. 

St. Clotsend (1), GLODESIND. 

B. Clotsend (2), June 30 (CLOSSE- 
INDE, CLOTHSENDIS), V. "f c. 703, or, ac 
cording to Bucelinus, 688. Daughter of 
SS. Adalbald and RICTRUDE. Second 
abbess of Marchiennes, in Flanders. 
Her sisters were ST. EUSEBIA and ST. 
ADALSEND, and she had a brother, St. 
Maurontus. Bucelinus, Men. Ben. Hens- 
chenius in AA.SS. 

St. Clydai Nov. 1. Rees, in his list 
of the daughters of Brychan, seems to 
imply that Clydai joined her sisters 
CYMOKTH and CENEDLON in a religious 
life at Emlyn. (See ALMHEDA.) 

St. Cneburh, QUIMBURGA. 

St. Cneuberga, QUIMBURGA. 

St. Cobba, COPPA. 

B. Cobflatia, abbess of Kildare, 
daughter of Dubhdun. "f 914. Colgan, 
ii. 621 . 

St. Coca, June 6 (CoccA, COCHA, 

COGA, CUACA, CUAOH, CUACHA, CuCCA, 

CUCIA), V. Commemorated by the Irish. 
The ancient church of Kilcock, dedicated 
in her name, was on the Rye water, 
between Kildare and Meath. Butler, 
Appendix. O Hanlon, Irish Saints, i. 
130. 

St. Cocchea, or Concha (2), June 
J 1 . , July 2i. (ith century. Foster-mother 
of St. Kieran of Saigir. She presided 
over a nunnery in Ireland, and Kieran 
used to go there every Christmas night 
to celebrate Mass, after having done so 
in his own community. Colgau. Lani- 
gan, iii. . K ti. 

St. Codeda, or ( OM&gt;KI:I:&lt; , Oct. LM . 

St. Codene, or CODEMS, Feb. 17, 
M. at Rome with many others. Heii- 
schenius. 



St. Ccelifloria, Jan ."&gt;, M. in Africa. 
AA.SS. 

St. Ccenburga, or QUIMBEUG, sister 
of OTTTHBBBO. 

Coenneta, April 24. Irish. Men 
tioned in Martyrokffy of Tcunlaclit or 
Tallaght. AA.SS., Prater. 

Coentigern, KENTIGKRNA. 

St. Coga, Cor A, perhaps same as 
COCCHEA. 

St. Cohaeria, Aug. l, COYER?:. 

St. Coimgheall, Oct. 20, V. Sister 
of ST. DARBELIN. 

St. Cointa, or COINTHA, QUINTA. 

B. Colagia, Aug. 3&lt;&gt;, V. -f I2it&gt;. 
Nun of the Order of our Lady of Mercy 
for the redemption of captives. No 
authority for worship. AA.SS. 

St. Colette, Mar. 6. 1380-1447. 
Sometimes called BOYLETTE. Reformer 
of the Order of St. Francis. Patron of 
Corbie, in Picardy. Robert Boilet, or 
Boellet, was a poor carpenter at Corbie ; 
his wife, Margaret Noyon, was sixty 
years old when, in 1380, her life-long 
prayer for a child was answered by the 
appearance of a little daughter. In 
honour of St. Nicholas, to whom the old 
couple had a great devotion, they chris 
tened her Colette (i.e. Nicolette). They 
were very charitable, and used a house 
that belonged to them as a hospice for 
persons too wretched to be received in 
some of the benevolent institutions. She 
had the best education her parents could 
give her, for they sent her for instruction 
to the great Benedictine monastery of 
Corbie, founded by ST. BATHILDE. On 
her way to school she often gave her 
luncheon to some beggar. She con 
stantly denied herself for the sake of 
others. She visited the sick and afflicted 
in their own homes, reading parts of the 
holy Scriptures to them in their own 
language, translating and explaining as 
she went along. Many miraculous in 
cidents are recorded of her childhood. 
When she was fourteen she was extremely 
small. This distressed her father. So 
she prayed, " Lord, if it is for Thy glory 
and my salvation that I should always 
be so little, I am content if Thou wilt 
make mo great in heaven ; better so than 
to be great in this world and oft end 
Thee; but if Thou wilt, grant this 



ST. COLKTTK 



195 



pleasure to my father. . . . Thy will be 
done." Immediately she began to grow, 
and soon became a good-l&lt; oking uirl of 
the ordinary size. When she was 
eighteen both her parents died. Sin- 
gave away all her little property. As 
she was puzzled and distressed by her 
visions, and uncertain what to do, she 
applied for direction to Father Bassadan, 
a Celestine prior of Amiens. He saw in 
her a great power of doing good in the 
religious world, and therefore insisted 
that she should restrain her mortifi 
cations and save her health for useful 
work. She joined successively the 
K- &lt;_ uincs, Urbauists, and Benedictines. 
Failing in each case to find the perfection 
of piety she expected, she returned to 
Corbie. After two years of frequent 
prayer that she might know her vocation, 
Father Pinet, O.S.F., advised her to be 
come a recluse. As soon as she had the 
necessary permissions, the neighbours, 
by whom she was much beloved, willingly 
helped to build and furnish her cell. It 
had a grated window, and a rota in the 
wall, so that the necessaries of life could 
be; passed in. Her reclusion was accom 
plished with a solemn service and a 
touching sermon, which moved many of 
the hearers to reform their lives. After 
Mass she pronounced, in a loud voice, 
before the altar, in the hands of the 
Abbot of Corbie, the vows of poverty, 
chastity, obedience, and perpetual se 
clusion. She entered the hermitage in 
1402. When Father Pinet died, she saw 
his soul go to paradise, but mourned 
&lt;1&lt; &lt; -ply the loss of her holy director. A 
now friend and adviser was given her in 
the person of Henri de la Beanme, a 
nobleman of Savoy, and a Cordelier, of 
the strict observance of St. Francis. 
Miserable on account of the divisions 
and abuses in the Church which had two 
IN-pes, and in his own order which had 
two general.-, he obtained permission to 
!&lt;;ni. At Avignon, on his 
way to embark, u holy nun told him that 
God required his services not at Jerusa- 

but at ( orbie, where He had prepared 
Himself a servant nam&lt; d Colette, \\lio 

di;.-tined to reform the ( )rd. r oi 
Francis, lie accordingly visited Colette. 
She refused to leave her cell. This re 



sistance to the message of God was 
punished with six days of blindness and 
dumbness, after which she consented ; 
and Henri obtained the necessary autho 
rization, and her dispensation from her 
vow of seclusion. Colette went with him 
to Nice, and obtained an audience of 
Benedict XIII. She asked him that 
she, and all who chose to join her, might 
be allowed to make their profession in 
the Order of St. Clara, with permission 
to observe the primitive rule in all its 
rigour. The Pope was convinced that 
Colette s calling was from God. He 
overruled the opposition of the cardinals, 
dispensed her from the year of her no 
vitiate, received her vow to observe the 
rule of St. Clara as established by its 
holy founder, gave her the veil and cord, 
and constituted her Abbess and Reformer- 
general of the Order of St. Francis. He 
appointed Pere Henri de la Boaume 
superior-general of the reformed monks 
and nuns, under the authority of Sister 
Colette, recommending him to assist her 
in every way; and he gave them both 
his apostolic blessing. Before Colette 
left Nice, Benedict sent her a beautiful 
Breviary, and a book containing the rules 
and constitutions of St. Clara. After the 
Revolution this book was removed from 
the convent of Besanc.on to Poligny, 
with other relics of St. Colette. 

Colette resolved to begin her work at 
her native town, but had to abandon for 
the time her project of building a convent 
there, as the people received her so badly. 
King &lt; harles VII., the Duchess of Bur 
gundy, the Duchess of Valentinois, the 
Duke and Duchess of Lorraine, the 
Princess of Orange, and many other 
illustrious personages gave the reform 
ground, otherwise assisted and encoura 
them, and begged their prayers; and 
Blanche of Savoy, the Countess of 
Geneva whoso castle at Rumilly was 
one of the first convents of the reform 
begged to be buried at the feet of Colette, 
wherever she might be laid. 

All this time she worked to the ut 
most of her power towards healing the 
schism in the Church. In 1410, St. 
Vincent Ferrer was praying for the same 
.LM-eut object in S . Ho had an 

; y. in which he saw Colette at the 



190 



ST. COL1MA 



feet of the Saviour offering tfce same 
prayer, and he was inspired to visit her 
at Besancou, the headquarters of the 
reformed order. He was considered 
the greatest preacher in the world. He 
had been, like Colette, on the side of 
Benedict XIII., but had abandoned his 
cause on discovering that his persistence 
was the great obstacle to the healing of 
the schism. These two saints wrote a 
letter to the fathers assembled at the 
Council of Constance, and sent it by the 
Archbishop of Besancon. The fathers 
were delighted, knowing the great merits 
of both saints, and having heard of their 
miracles. Very soon Martin V. was 
elected. Colette immediately gave her 
allegiance to him. He considered she 
had been instrumental in his election, 
and always showed a great regard for 
her ; he confirmed all the privileges and 
dignities granted her by Benedict. She 
is credited with contributing to heal the 
schism. St. Vincent Ferrer, on leaving 
Besancon, presented to Colette the black 
wooden cross he had carried with him 
from Saragossa. It is preserved in the 
Franciscan convent at Besancon as a 
precious relic. It is rudely cut in deal, 
and is between four and five feet high, 
and two fingers thick. 

Colette died at the convent of Bethle 
hem, at Ghent, and was canonized by 
Pius VII., in 1807. 

Her life was full of miraculous features; 
some of her ecstasies are recorded in the 
process of her canonization. One which 
happened in the convent of Besancon 
lasted fifteen days, during which she 
was totally deprived of her bodily senses, 
so that the nuns thought she was in that 
state in which our bodies will be after 
the resurrection. Great numbers of 
people desired to see her, and as the 
peace of the cloister was endangered by 
the threatened influx of secular persons, 
Father Henri commanded her, in the 
name of holy obedience, to return to her 
natural condition. 

Colette converted many obstinate 
sinners, performed many cures, and 
raised four dead persons to life. 

Bagatta, Admiranda, says that she had 
a ring given her by our Lord, in testi 
mony that she belonged to Him. She 



thought it would be well to have it 
overlaid with gold or silver, but no 
goldsmith could be found who was able 
to do it. 

She built or reformed more than three 
hundred convents for men and women 
of the Order of St. Francis. At one 
time the Franciscans reformed by her 
were called Colettines. Leo X., in 1 ." 1 7, 
united all the reformed Franciscans 
under the name of Observantines. The 
nuns reformed by her were called Poor 
Clares, to distinguish them from the 
Urbanists or Mitigated Clares. Although 
she was much opposed for a time 
notably by those who hated to be re 
formed her holiness became so well 
recognised that many monks and nuns 
left other orders and entered that of 
St. Francis, hoping to attain to greater 
sanctity through the strict observance 
revived by Colette. 

All the Lives of this saint are founded 
on that by Peter de Vaux of Rheims, 
her last confessor. It was translated 
into Latin, and is so given by Hens- 
chenius with copies of letters and docu 
ments, authorizing her to carry out her 
reform. AA.SS. R.M. Vie dc Saint e 
Colette, by Edouard Jumel of Corbie, 
cure of Bourdon, member of the Society 
of Antiquaries of Picardy. Baillet, 
Butler, Helyot, etc. Her picture or 
statue is to be seen in most of the 
Franciscan churches as one of the great 
ornaments of the Seraphic Order. 

St. Colima, or COLLNA, COLUMBA. 

St. Coliondola, or Colionus and 
DOLA. AA.SS. 

Colma, or COLUMBA (8), Jan. 22, V. of 
Leitir. Of the family of the Dal in 
Buain, and of co. Antrim in Ireland. 
She and her sisters, BOGHA and LASSARA, 
were educated by St. Comgall of Bangor. 
O Hanlon, Irish Saints. Smith and 
Wace. 

St. Colomba, COLUMBA. 

St. Colomiere, OOLUMBABIA. 

St. Columba (1), Dec. ;n, Jan. 7, 
July 22, 28, Dec. 17 (COLOMBA, COLONA, 
COLOMBE, COMB A), V. M. ."&gt;rd century. 
Patron of Sens, and of La Rioja, where 
her body is preserved. 

Represented (1) with a bear at her 
feet eating a man; (2) in chains; (:-J) 



ST. COLI.MHA 



197 



a fire, which is being quenched 
by a clou-!. 

Sometimes called the first martyr of 
C.ltic Gaul. According to the L&lt;&gt;w&gt; //- 
,l,i ri&lt;&gt; ili-lle santf vcrgini, her martyrdom 
..(urrcd in the time of Aurelian, at 
ioua, a city of that undefined 
region so often referred to in legends 

tin- List." She was confined in one of 
the cells, called " forni," or " fornaces," 
uuder the amphitheatre, and was there 

I tended from insult and violence by a 
bear. She was next condemned to be 
burnt, but the fire was extinguished by 
an abundant rain, although the weather 
\v;is lino and the sky clear. Finally she 
was beheaded. 

Tiie name she bore in her life is 
unknown. It is supposed that she was 
called Colomba from her innocence and 
u rntleness. It is also suggested that the 
first church was dedicated to the Holy 
Ghost under the name of Columba, a 
dove, and that the legend was invented 
to suit the name. 

She is one of the favourite saints in 
Franco. Legend says she came from 
Spain to Sens, and there suffered martyr 
dom outside the city, where an abbey 
was afterwards called by her name. 
There is, however, according to Tille- 
mont, no authority for fixing Sens as the 
place of her death. Little is known of 
her history except that she was a martyr, 
probably either uuder Marcus Aurelius, 
Valerian, or Aurelian. A church dedi 
cated in her name existed at Sons in (32ii, 
and St. Lou, bishop of Sens in that year, 
ordered himself to be buried under the 
eaves of that church that the rain from 
the glitters might drip on his bones. 
In the reign of Dagobert there was a 
chapel in her honour in Paris mentioned 
by M. Owen in his Life of St. Eloi 
Kliuius). St. Hloi was ordered by 
ha.u olx-rt to make a splendid shrine for 
IK T, which lie did, and ornamented her 
church at Sens. A Benedictine mon 
astery was afterwards built beside tin- 
&lt;-li u rch, and there her relics were k -jit 
until they were dispersed by the 
diabolical fury of the Huguenots. 

H T chief festival is the JMh of 

Inly. The day of her martyrdom, I &gt; 0. 
1, is shared with other saint-. In 



the jP.3f. her translation is celebrated 
Dec. 17. 

/, ..!/., Dec. :n. Baillot, F/&lt; *. Tille- 
mont, Eccles. Hist. Mentioned in tin- 
M irfy rology of Usuard, etc., and in the 
Martyrology of Tallaght. 

St. Columba C&gt; ), July 2n, V. M. of 
Coimbra. Murdered by her (affianced ? i 
husband in the Valley das Cellas, near 
Coinibra, as she was making her escape 
in order to fulfil a vow of celibacy. 
Such is the local legend. Sollerius 
thinks it probable that this is COLUMBA 
( 1 ). AA.SS. 

St. Columba 00 or COMBA, May I, 
V. M. "f c. :*o;&gt;. Patron saint of Kvora. 
Honoured with her sister, whoso name 
is not known, but who is popularly 
called ST. ANOMINATA, at Tourega, near 
Fvora in Portugal. Their brother, 
Jordao, was bishop of Evora. In the 
persecution under Diocletian, Coluraba 
was beheaded. Anominata fled, but 
Jordao brought her back with reproaches 
for her cowardice, and she had the 
honour of being beheaded also. On the 
spot of their execution a fountain sprang 
up, from which the water is taken to all 
parts of the kingdom to cure fever. 
Cardoso, Agiologio Lnsitano. According 
to the .11 XS . Boll., their brother s name 
was Vincent. 

St. Columba &lt; 4), Sept. 1. Recluse 
in the Abruzzi, honoured with her 
brothers, St. Nicholas and St. Giles. 

Supposed by the Bollandists to be the 
sister of St. Berardus, bishop of Inte- 
ramna. AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Columba (^), July 2n, V.M. at 
Interamna, in the diocese of Braga, in 
Portugal. Mentioned by Cardoso, Ay. 
Lus. AA.SS. 

St. Columba 05), March in, V.M. 
Daughter of King Avitus. Sister of 
ST. COUDULA, and leader of a thousand 
of the companions of ST. URSULA. 
Probably the one to whom a church is 
dedicated in Cornwall. Perhaps same 
as Columba (U). 

St. Columba (7), March 29, V. 
Daughter of Baith and Lucilla. Colgan. 

St. Columba (8), COLMA. 

St. Columba &lt; ). A holy woman 
in. utioned in a litany used in England 
in the 7th century, to be found in 



198 



ST. COLUMBA 



Mabillon, Vetera Analecta, t p. .i ) 1 . , 
quoted at the end of the English Martyr- 
ology, London, 1701. Perhaps same 
as Columba ( ). 

St. Columba ( 1 &lt; &gt; ), June 24. Sister 
of SS. PECINNA and MAGKINA. (See 
PECINNA.) 

St. Columba l ), Sept. 17, V. M. 
s ."&gt;;&gt;. Patron of Cordova and Zamora. 
The much younger sister of Elizabeth, 
who, with her husband St. Jeremia 
founded the double monastery of Tabanos. 
Elizabeth presided over the nuns, and 
her brother Martin over the monks. 
They persuaded Columba not to marry, 
rather to the annoyance of her mother ; 
but on her death Columba went to her 
brother and sister, and attained to great 
holiness as a nun in the monastery of 
Tabanos. She was charged with the 
instruction of the young nuns. When 
the persecution obliged them to leave 
Tabanos they fled to Cordova. Not 
finding the same quiet and leisure for 
devotion, she determined to be a martyr. 
She was beheaded in a persecution of 
Christians by the Moors. The Moors 
had so much respect for her character 
that they did not expose her body on a 
gibbet after death, but allowed it to be 
wrapped in linen, and thrown into the 
Guadalquiver. It was recovered six days 
afterwards by the monks. H.M. Baillot. 
Butler. Martin. Meseuguy. 

St. Columba (12;, or COMBA OSOREZ, 
Feb. 19, V. M. Probably about 082. 
Abbess of the Benedictine monastery of 
Arenas, which is supposed to have been 
founded in the Oth century. Put to 
death with all her nuns for the sake of 
their religion and innocence, by a band 
of Saracens under Almanzor. The bar 
barians utterly destroyed the house, of 
which no vestige remains. Tradition says 
it was three leagues east of the city of 
Lamego, in Portugal. If this Almanzor 
was the famous warrior-king of Cordova, 
the date is probably 082, when he de 
stroyed many religious houses in that 
region. Cardoso, Agidogio Lusitano. 

It is possible that the incident hap 
pened one hundred and thirty years 
earlier, during the persecution of the 
Christians under Abderrahman. The 
martyrdom of St. Columba is mentioned 



in a deed of donation from Tendon or 
Tedone Fasir to the Cistercian monks of 
St. John at Arouca, on the Douro, in the 
diocese of Lamego, April 4, 1120. 

Bollandus, AA.SS., in the Prsetermissi, 
regards her worship as uncertain, and 
cannot tell whether this is the COLU.MBA 
ranked among the saints of Portugal or 
not. 

St. Columba (13) of Greville. Once 
upon a time there was a pretty girl 
named Columba, who lived at Greville, 
in Normandy. She was a great favourite 
with old and young. Every youth in 
the village wished to be her partner in 
the dance, or to carry her milking-pail. 
Though pleasant with all, she gave en 
couragement to no one. Columba worked 
hard ; but she was fond of reading, and 
this was the cause of her downfall. The 
priest of the parish was a handsome 
young man, who preached like a saint 
and sang like an angel ; he lent her 
books, and when she went to return them 
and get others, he used to invite her to 
walk in his garden, and give her some 
of the beautiful roses and delicious figs 
and peaches which he cultivated. Gos 
sips, indeed, made a few remarks about 
these visits to the parsonage, but Columba 
was so modest, so pious, so amiable to 
all except her lovers, that no one could 
say anything against her. One day, 
however, she disappeared. People re 
membered that she was last seen going 
to the parsonage. After a week of un 
certainty, some of, the young villagers 
went to the curate. He and his house 
keeper admitted that she had been there 
some days ago, but said they did not 
know what had become of her, and in 
vited the young men to come in and 
search the premises. With some apologies 
they did so, and found no trace of their 
missing companion. What had happened 
was this. The handsome cure and his 
pretty parishioner suddenly discovered 
that they had fallen in love, and when 
Columba attempted to leave the par 
sonage as usual, the cure forcibly de 
tained her. The housekeeper s one desire 
was to keep everything quiet and avert 
scandal. Columba, driven to despair, 
bolted herself in a little room where 
there was firewood and a hatchet, and in 



ST. COU .Mi; \ 



P.I .. 



her desperation sounded the walls, and 
found that behind the logs and faggots 
ih re was a long-disnsed little door 
opening into a cellar. She took a candle 
with her, went down some damp and 
dusty steps, and found herself in a large 
cave, where she heard the distant sound 
of the sea. She could hardly believe 
her ears, for she knew it was a good half- 
league from Greville to the shore. While 
she was wondering and hesitating she 

1 sounds as if her pursuers were 
trying to break open the bolted door of 
her little room. She decided not to be 
n captured. She hastily closed up the 
door through which she had passed, 
and fled along the damp, dark under- 
L niund gallery. At one time she thought 
the cave came to an end and that there was 
no escape, but presently she discovered 
a passage so narrow that she had to 
crawl. She was encouraged by feeling 
fresh air, and hearing more and more 
plainly the sound of the waves, and as 
the day dawned she found herself at the 
hole under the rock called le Eoclier du 
( "( t. She knew the place well, as she 
had often been there fishing for shrimps 
an. I gathering shells. She thanked God 
for her escape, and walked back to her 
home. She told her parents she had 
been to the cavern of the Cutrt, but she 

ied rather confused as to how she 
had got there. It was supposed that 
she had tumbled off the rock at the en 
trance of the cleft, that she had fainted, 
and remained there a long time. She 
returned to her usual occupations, but 
not with her former cheerfulness. She 
did not talk, and when spoken to she 
only answered in monosyllables. Baking- 
day came round. She undertook the 
task as usual. Some of the neighbours 
saw her heating the oven with faggots 
of fern and gorse, and passing that way 
later in the day, they saw that the oven 
\vas shut. They supposed she had put 
in her dough and gone away, and they 
thought no more :ib&gt;utit. When it was 
tim- to take out the bread, as Colnmba 
did not make her appearance, her friends 
went to the bake-house, and then it was 
evident that the oven had not been 
tened ii] \\ith clay on the outsid 
usual, but that the clay was inside. 



They removed the stone, and, instead of 
the bread which they expected to find in 
the oven, they only saw a white dove, 
which flew out of the door and disap 
peared. Columba had condemned her 
self to go alive into the oven ; and to 
show that her fault was forgiven, she 
had been changed into a dove. Mean 
time the priest had heard of her return 
to her parents house, but ho had not 
dared to show himself there, nor to meet 
her on the road ; he listened, however, 
to everything that was said about her, 
and when he heard that she had been 
changed into a dove, he exclaimed, " Co 
lumba is saved, but I am lost ! " Forth 
with he went and hanged himself in a 
little field near his house. This enclo 
sure, which lies between the priest s 
garden and that of the modern communal 
school, is considered accursed. It is left 
uncultivated, and although it is close to 
the schoolmaster s garden, it remains 
separated from it by a wall. The statue 
of St. Columba may still be seen in the 
old romanesque church of Greville, and, 
for further proof of the story, le Eochcr 
du Cdtet stands in a hollow of the/a/aww* 
which fall away below it perpendicularly 
on each side, and under the catet is a 
cleft called to this day le Trou de Stf.. 
Columbe, inaccessible at high- water, and 
invisible until the traveller is close to 
it. It is so small that two men could 
scarcely enter it abreast, and so narrow 
that it would be disagreeable to explore 
its slimy depths. It is said that even 
before the time of Columba a cock was 
thrown into this hole, by way of experi 
ment, and its crowing was heard in the 
chinch next day an important part of 
the evidence for the whole story. Fleury, 
LiU nihire orale de la Basse- Nor mandic. 

B. Columba (14), Dec. :il. Kecluso 
at and founder of the monastery of 
Cortonberg, or Cortemberg, between 
Brussels and Louvain. Her tomb was 
destroyed by the Calvinists, 157 J. Bu- 
eelinus, Men. Ben. Gynecseum. 

St. Columba &lt; 1"0, or ANGIOLA, May 
L ", V. of Kieti. 1467-1601. ardO.S.D. 
Apji -ali-d to by those hindered and beset 
by the devil and his temptations and 
attacks. Her name is supposed to have 
1 . i -n ( i uudagnioli ; an old picture of this 



200 



B. COLUMBA 



saint was preserved for manyyears with 
great veneration in that family, with an 
inscription signifying that she was one 
of them. An apparition of angels with 
a splendid chariot is said to have been 
seen by the women who attended her 
mother at the time of Columba s birth. 
She was baptised by the name of An- 
giola, but a white dove was seen to fly 
round and round the font, and finally to 
settle on the head of the newly chris 
tened babe. This caused people to call 
her Colomba, and soon her real name 
was forgotten. She practised mortifica 
tion from her tenderest infancy, strewed 
thorns in her bed at the age of three, 
and at four obtained the permission of 
her parents to fast on bread and water 
every Friday. A hair shirt which she 
made for herself at the age of five, out 
of an old sieve, is reverently preserved 
by the nuns of St. Agnes at Rieti. Her 
family arranged a marriage for her, and 
insisted on fulfilling the engagement 
without her consent. She cut off her 
beautiful hair, after the example of ST. 
CATHERINE or SIENA, to show that she 
had consecrated herself, by a vow, to a 
religious life. She then fled to the con 
vent of St. Scholastica, and her intended 
husband broke off the contract, fearing 
to commit sacrilege. She returned to 
her father s house, where she was con 
soled by visions and ecstasies. Her 
mother chid her for neglecting her duties 
during her religious reveries. Once, for 
instance, she let her infant brother fall 
into the fire. In 1488, she went to 
Perugia, where she was received as a 
saint. She occupied herself teaching 
and training children, and it was for that 
purpose the Perugians first begged her 
to remain with them. The Dominicans, 
however, would not allow her to receive 
any children to teach, as they feared she 
might be tempted to pride, and they dis 
liked the admiration and notoriety of 
which she was the object. The people 
built her a monastery, and kept her at 
the public expense. Kieti offered the 
same, but Perugia would not give her 
up. Columba made her profession there 
in 14! (. She nursed the people of 
Perugia during the plague. Eighteen 
years after her death the bell of St. 



Dominic at Perugia was repaired and 
consecrated in the name of St. Columba ; 
her image in the act of flying to heaven 
was impressed upon it, with the motto, 
Patrise libcrationem. She worked many 
miracles before and after her death. She 
died May 2n, i;&gt;ol. In 1500 leave was 
obtained from Pius V. to make a com 
memoration of St. Columba in the office 
and in the Mass. On May 2&lt;&gt;, K&gt;71, 
permission was given to burn lamps at 
her sepulchre, and for other public acts 
of veneration. In U&gt;2o a decree of 
Urban VIII. forbade devotion to any 
saint unless solemnly canonized. Co 
lumba s worship, however, was restored 
in 1027. She has not yet been canonized, 
but is always called saint, and honoured 
as such. A.R.M., O.S.D. Papebroch, in 
AA.SS. Modern Saints. 

B. Columba ( l&gt;;, Colomba dei 
Trocazani ol Milan. 1517. :&gt;rd O.S.D. 
She was very pious and strict, and, when 
young, avoided the company of girls ; 
but their parents insisted on their coming 
to her for edification. The plague broke 
out, and attacked her and every member 
of her family; her mother and two 
brothers died. The police shut up the 
house ; she remained alone, in bed, with 
no human help. The VIUCIN MANY and 
saints came and fed her. At last she 
was taken to the Lazaretto. The doctor 
fell in love with her, and abused his 
privileges ; as she spurned his devotion, 
he threatened to leave her to die. She 
complained to the managers. They dis 
missed the doctor. Columba recovered. 
She took the habit of the Third Order 
of St. Dominic, and became the first nun 
in the convent of St. Lazarus, liy com 
mand of the monks after ten years, she 
joined the Second Order. Her fasts and 
austerities were very wonderful. Five 
rays came from the wounds of Christ on 
the cross and wounded her. She was 
crowned by Christ with a golden crown. 
When she was receiving the Communion 
a dove surrounded by glory was seen 
over her head. She felt the sufferings 
of Christ the wounds, the scourging at 
the pillar. She was prioress three times. 
She opened her eyes when she was dead 
and being laid in the tomb. Pio. 

Ven. Columba (17) of Corea, V. M. 



ST. COXCOHDIA 



201 



Columba and Agnes were two 
, au r &lt;l t\\vnty-four and twenty-six. 
When tin I l-rsecutiou of the Christians 
raged in Corea, in 18. ) . , they declared 
themselves Christians. They were 
threatened with death by scourging, 
unless they would give up their books 
and betray their friends. Seeing that 
they did not fear pain, their brutal judge 
condemned them to the mor. cruel fate 
of being given up to the villains who 
shared the prison of the Christians. 
Like ST. AGNES (2 ), they wm- miracu 
lously protected. They seemed endowed 
with superhuman strength, and remained 
unharmed. They were several times 
taken from the prison, questioned, 
threatened, tortured, but remained true 
t&lt;&gt; their faith and profession. Some of 
the Christian prisoners died of a fever 
that broke out in the prison. We do not 
know by what death these two girls 
glorified God, but they are accounted 
martyrs. Martyrs de I Orient Extreme. 
Da Hot, Histoire de VEglisL dc Cor^e. 
Neligan, Stiintly Characters. 

St. Columbaria, or COLOMIKUE, Dec. 
I. Honoured in the diocese of Saintes. 
Perhaps COLUMBA. 

St. Columbina, May 22, V. M. with 
Luciau the king ; Marcian and Valen- 
tinian, bishops ; Komanus, Columbanus, 
and Simplicius. They were all mar- 
1 immediately after ST. QUITERIA. 
1 apebroch considers there is no authority 
tor the martyrdom of these saints, al 
though they are commemorated in the 
( alendars &lt; &gt;f Spain and Portugal. AA.SS. 
&lt; olumbina is honoured in Catalonia as a 
companion of ST. UKSULA. 

St. Comagia, May 27. Daughter of 
Kuchodius. Nun at Snain-Luthir, a 
convent on the north coast of Counaught, 
founded by her brother, Columban or 
Colman. AA.SS., Prseter., from the 
Martyr. l..^i.-.s of Tallaght and Donegal, 
Adaimian, etc. 

St. Comba. Portuguese for COLUMBA. 

SS. Cornelia and Cornelia (1 ,&lt;n 

else two ( O|:M;I.I AS. April 2, MM. in 
Africa. AA.*^. 

St. Cometa. A penitent, mentioned 

hy .lohll Mosell, i|liote.l l,y (ill Tin. 

St. Comgella &lt; i . titter erf &lt; 

I .VUVA, July 7. AJL88, 



St. Comgella 1 2 &gt;. 5th century. 
Daughter of Ernach of Munster. Mother 
of St. Senan of Scattery. (See CANNEUA. ) 

St. Comitissa, COXTESSA. 

St. Commeria, WILUKFOUTIS. 

St. Comnata, Jan. 1. f :ln. Ab 
bess of Kildare. Colgan. 

St. Conacha, Oct. 2;&gt;, V. Irish. 
Mart, of Tamlaght. AA.SS., Prsehr. 

St. Concessa ( l ), April 8, M. at 
Carthage. BM. AA.SS. 

Concessa (2), CONCHKSSA, or CON 
CHES. Mother of St. Patrick. By one 
account St. Patrick was her only child, 
and, alter his birth, she took a vow of 
celibacy and became a nun. Others say 
she had several daughters who were 
saints. See DAHEHCA. Bucolinus. 

St. Concha (1), QUINTA. 

St. Concha ( 2 ) t GOCCHEA. 

St. Conchenna (1), March 13, V. 
Early 7th century. .Daughter of Tul- 
chan and Fethlemidia, both of the family 
of Niel. Sister of SS. Kieran, Lugadius, 
and Munna. Nun (perhaps abbess) at 
Kill Flebhe, or Kilsleevecullen, built by 
ST. MONEXNA, near the Cuilinn hills in 
Ultonia. When Munna had lived for 
many years at his monastery of Tech- 
telle, Fethlemidia and Conchenna sent 
him word that they wanted to see him. 
His answer was, " Come to Lughmagh 
no nearer and I will come and see 
you." The mother came with two 
married daughters and Conchenna. 
When they arrived, Concheuna was 
seized with sudden pains and died. 
Next day, after she was buried, Munua 
eame and raised her to life, but warned 
liis mother and sisters, saying, "Mind 
you never come near mo again. If you 
do I will leave Ireland entirely." Colgau. 
Luuigan. 

St. Conchenna (2). -f 739. 
Daughter of Kellaigh Chuallan. Laiii- 
gUL 

Conches, CONCESSA 

St. Conchessa, OON&lt; i fed 

St. Concordia &lt; 1 i. (See 9r. PEU- 

i in \ i 1).) 

St. Concordia (2 &gt;, Aug. 13, Feb. 3, 

M. at Rome. 2."&gt;2. Patron of nurses and 

good children. Nurse of St. Hippolytus. 

was scourged to de.ith, and he wa&gt; 

tied by the feet to wild horses and dragged 



202 



ST. CONCOBDIA 



through thorns and over rouh ground 
until he died. Nineteen more of the 
household of Hippolytus were beheaded 
at the same time. After martyrdom, 
Concordia was thrown into the cloaca 
maxima. SS. Irenaeus and Abundius 
took her body out of the sewer to bury 
it, and were therefore thrown in alive. 
E.M. AA.SS. Callot, Images. Husen- 
beth, Emblems. 

St. Concordia (.5), May i&gt;, M. in 
Africa. AA.SS. 

St. Concordia (4), June 2. One of 
227 Eoman martyrs commemorated to 
gether in Jerome s Martyrology. AA.SS. 

St. Condebec, CODEDA. 

St. Confessa, May 10, V. Patron of 
the diocese of Tarbes. F.M. 

St. Congella, or CONGILLA, Nov. !), 
V. "f c. &lt;571, in England. Ferrarius. 

St. Conilla, JONILLA. 

St. Coningenia, or CUACHA (2), 
April 29. Irish. AA.SS., Praeter., 
from the Mart, of Tamlacjlit. 

St. Conna, March 8, V. An Irish 
saint mentioned by Marian Gorman. 
Probably same as CUANNA, April In. 
AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Consolata, Dec. 5, 6, V. Nun. 
Of noble parents; probably Genoese. 
Horn in Palestine during tho time that 
it was occupied by the Christians. At 
her birth a halo of light appeared round 
her head. She would not take milk, 
but the bees came daily and fed her with 
honey. When she was seven years old 
she wore a cilicinm. She took the veil 
in a convent built by her father. At 
her death the angels sang, and crowds of 
sick and infirm people were cured by 
touching her clothes. She was trans 
lated to Genoa, where a church was 
called by her name, and many miracles 
were wrought through her intercession. 
Bucclinus, Men. Ben. 

This is probably the same as ST. CON 
SOLATA, Sept. &lt;5, Dec. 5, worshipped in 
the cathedral of Reggio. AA.SS. 

St. Consorta, OOXHOKTIA. 

St. Consortia, or CONSOKTA, March 
i:J, June 22, V. -~&gt;th century. Daughter 
of SS. Eucherius and GALLA, who for a 
long time had no child to inherit their 
great possessions. They prayed for 
heirs, and were at last blessed with a 



daughter, whom they named Consortia. 
They had a second daughter, ST. TULLIA, 
and two sons, Salonius and Veranius, 
who became bishops and saints. After 
some years Eucherius told his wife that, 
with her consent, he would shave his 
head, and be built up in a grotto on his 
property, at a place called Mont Maur, 
overhanging the Durance. Galla begged 
him to allow her also to assume a reli 
gious habit, and to wait upon him as a 
servant. She hastened the preparations 
for his reclusion. They invited their 
friends and relations to a farewell ban 
quet, and Eucherins declared his project. 
They all tried to dissuade him, but lie- 
said he had put his hand to the plough 
and could not look back. Eucherius 
and Galla divided their goods into three 
parts ; one they gave to the poor, one to 
their servants, and one to their children. 
Then Eucherius went into his cave and 
had the entrance built up ; a little 
window was left open, and through it 
Galla gave him his daily food. Not 
many days after the conversion of her 
parents, their younger daughter, Tullia, 
died. Galla would not be comforted 
until Tullia appeared to her, clad in 
white with a shining golden mantle, and 
said, " Why dost thou mourn for me as 
if I were lost ? The Lord has admitted 
me into the company of the holy virgins, 
and thou shalt follow me soon. My 
father will be raised to the pontifical 
seat, and will be great in the sight of 
God. My sister Consortia will suffer 
much for the sake of her religious voca 
tion, and will follow us to heaven at 
last." Soon afterwards a young man, 
named Aurelius, came to ask of Euche 
rius the hand of his daughter Consortia. 
He said she should decide for herself. 
She said it was not in her power to 
accept or refuse this offer, as Christ was 
her husband. The young man did not 
answer at tho time, but sent certain noble 
matrons to try and persuade her to 
accede to his wishes. She begged them 
to wait for seven days. She passed the 
time in fasting and vigils, and when 
Aurelius and his friends came to receive 
her final answer, she said, " I told you 
before that the decision does not rest 
with me. But, if you choose, let us go 



ST. COXSORTIA 



208 



;her to the chnrch ; let Mass bo 
&gt;&lt;&gt;leinnized; let the Gospel be placed on 

ultar ; and, having prayed together, 
let us open the Book, and see the will of 
&lt;;&lt;! in the chapter which first meets our 

." The deciding passage of Scrip 
ture was, "Whoso loveth father and 
mother more than Me is not worthy of 
Me." Consortia thanked God, and said 
! Aurelius, " Seek a wife according to 
your taste, for Christ is my Husband, 
and will not give me up." Consortia 
took the sacred veil. She did not live 
in a convent, but in the world, bound by 
a vow of celibacy, and given to works of 
devotion and charity, according to the 
custom of those days. 

About 4. {4 it happened that the Bishop 
of Lyons died. It was the rule of that 
Church, when widowed of its bishop, to 
wait for some divine revelation to decide 
the election of a successor. On this 
occasion, after three days of rigorously 
observed fasting and prayer, the angel 
of the Lord appeared to a boy, and told 
him that the recluse Eucherius, who lived 
in a cave on the river Durance, was the 
chosen pastor. The archdeacon and 
clergy repaired to the cave, and offered 
tin; see to Eucherius. He swore that 
hi 1 would not voluntarily come out of his 
cave, neither would ho go with them un 
less they bound him. They then broke 
down the wall, tied him with ropes, and 
took him by force to the church over 
which he was to preside. Galla took 
possession of the cave, and her daughter 
Consortia brought her her daily food. 

After the death of her parents, Con- 
sortia built a church and xenodochium 
in honour of St. Stephen, gave the rest 
of her goods to the poor, and eet free her 
slaves. Having settled her affairs, she 
went to Clothaire, king of the Franks, to 
ask his protection, that she might servo 
God unmolested in his realm. The 
king s daughter was dying of a fever. 
Consortia cured her. The king, in 
gratitude, offered Consortia anything in 
his kingdom, and as much silver and 
gold as she chose to take. She begged 
him rather to give it to the poor ; she 
only asked for liberty to live according 
to her vow, and that she and her servants 
and vassals should remain undisturl.el 



in the possessions they already had. 
Clothaire willingly granted her request. 
Consortia returned home. Shortly after, 
Clothaire died, and was succeeded by his 
son Sigebert, who deputed a noble, 
named Hecca, to settle the affairs of 
Marseilles. When he arrived there he 
heard there was in that province a 
beautiful young woman, the only sur 
vivor of a noble and wealthy family, 
having large estates and untold gold. 
Hecca sent to Consortia to announce a 
visit from himself. She entertained him 
at dinner. He was charmed with her 
beauty and the wisdom of her words. 
He went at once to the king, gave a 
satisfactory account of his mission, and 
also told him about this rich, young, un 
married woman, living alone on her 
estate. He begged that if the king 
would do him a favour, it might be to 
grant him this woman for his wife. 
Sigebert consented. Hecca sent mes 
sengers to Consortia to toll her that the 
king had given her hand to him, and 
he bade her prepare to be married in a 
month. She was much afflicted when 
she heard this, but she said, " I am the 
servant of the King. I cannot resist His 
commands. I will try to fulfil His 
wishes." The messengers thought her 
words applied to King Sigebert. They 
returned and told their master. Con 
sortia fasted and prayed and grieved so 
much that she seemed to be near her 
death. One day she went with one of 
her maids into the church she had built 
to St. Stephen. After praying and 
weeping there a long time, she fell 
asleep, and was consoled by an angel, 
who said to her, " Why do you distress 
yourself? The Lord whom you serve 
will not forsake you. The bridegroom 
whom the king sends will not reach you. 
Therefore prepare a feast, call the poor, 
and order a grave to be dug on the spot 
where you are lying, for in it shall be 
laid the man who wishes to take the 
bridu of Christ for himself. In three 
days his approach will be announced to 
you. Then go out to meet him, accom 
panied by your poor, singing psalms. 
When he sees you ho will kill himself 
with his own spear for joy." On the 
third day Hecca arrived on the opposite 



Jill 



ST. CONSTANCE 



bank of the river. Consortia went to 
meet him, dressed as if for a festival, 
and accompanied by a great multitude of 
poor people, all singing. Hecca was 
transported with joy. He jumped in 
cautiously out of the boat ; his foot 
slipped, his lauce pierced him through, 
and he fell down dead. Consortia took 
up the body, wrapped it in fine linen, 
and buried it in the grave she had pre 
pared. The men who had come with 
Hecca went back and told the king all 
that had occurred. The day they arrived 
happened to be Sigebert s birthday. His 
sister, who had been cured by Consortia, 
was sitting with him. When she heard 
the whole story, she guessed that the 
maiden for whom Hecca had lost his 
life must be the same who had cured 
her, and to whom her father had promised 
the undisturbed possession of her lands 
and a celibate life. Warned by his sister 
that evil would befall him if he allowed 
the servants of Christ to be molested, 
the king confirmed all the privileges 
granted to Consortia by his father. From 
that day God gave Consortia favour with 
all men. She made peace between ene 
mies, she healed the sick, she was adorned 
with every virtue, and her face was as 
placid as that of an angel. When her 
labours were nearly ended, and her rest 
approaching, she dreamt that in eight 
days she was to die. She made a three- 
days feast, at which she entertained the 
priests and the poor; her pious neigh 
bours were there also. She distributed 
all that she had to them, and informed 
them all that in five days she must die ; 
she therefore begged their prayers that 
she might not meet any evil spirits on 
leaving the body, but might be received 
by the angels of God and conducted to 
the resting-place of the saints. Having 
said this, she was seized with fever, and 
on the expected day she died, and was 
buried in the oratory she had built, and 
where she had buried her lover. Her 
body was afterwards translated to the 
monastery of Cluny, and specially hon 
oured there, March 13 and June 21&gt;. 
With the exception of St. Irenseus, 
Kucherius was by far the most dis 
tinguished of the bishops of Lyons. 
His writings are extant. The names of 



his sons are matter of history. It is not 
so certain that he had daughters. Con 
sortia and Tullia have been supposed to 
be daughters of a later St. Eucherins. 
No daughter of Eucherius of Lyons could 
have been living in the reign of Clothaire 
and Sigebert. Henschenius, in AA.SS. 
Boll. Bucelinus, Men. Ben. Montalem- 
bert, Moines d Occident, vii. ch. 6, note. 
Mabillon. Dr. Cazenove in Smith and 
Wace s Diet. 

St. Constance (1), Sept. l&lt;&gt; (Cox- 
STANTIA, COSTANZA), M. at Nocera, with 
St. Felix, under Nero. EM. AA.SS. 
Mas Latrie, Tresor. 

St. Constance (-!), May 10, M. at 
Tarsus, in Cilicia. AA.SS. 

St. Constance (3), Feb. 18 (CON- 
STANTIA AUGUSTA, COSTANZA). 4th cen- 
tuVy. Daughter of the Emperor Con- 
stantine, and granddaughter of ST. HELEN. 
Constance had a loathsome disease, and 
was covered with sores from head to foot. 
Many physicians prescribed for her in 
vain. At last she heard of cures being 
obtained at the tomb of ST. AGNES, so 
she travelled to Eome, and went super- 
stitiously as a heathen to the tomb. She 
fell asleep there. Agnes, in a vision, 
exhorted her to become a Christian, and 
promised her health on that condition. 
Constance was converted. At baptism 
she became perfectly well, and resolved 
to consecrate her life to God in virginity. 
Constantiue, however, wished her to marry 
Gallicauus, a general who had vanquished 
the Persians, and whose services he valued 
very highly. Seeing her father much 
distressed at her refusal, she consented 
to marry Gallicanus, on condition of his 
vanquishing the Scythians, who had in 
vaded Thrace and Dacia. While he was 
absent in this war she had his daughters, 
SS. ATTICA and ARTEMIA, to stay with 
her. Few could be found equal to them 
in wisdom and knowledge. She sent 
John and Paul, her faithful servants and 
cousins, with Gallicanus. She prayed 
earnestly that he might give up the idea 
of a marriage with her. She converted 
his daughters, and, at the same time, 
John and Paul converted him, exhorting 
him, when the chances of war seemed 
going against him, instead of sacrificing 
to Mars, to call upon the God of the 



Ml!. CONSTANCE XIRA AND MANY KKI,V\ ANDK/ 



205 



Christians, and vow to servo Him over 
after the event of victory. He had no 
soul HT made the vow than a gigantic 
youth appeared, bearing a cross on his 
shoulder, and saying, " Arise, Gallicanus, 
take thy dagger, and follow me." 1 1 - 
did so, and saw that he was surrounded 
by armed horsemen, who fought their 
way through the enemy. Gallicanus 
walked in the midst of them with his 
dagger drawn until they came to the 
Scythian king, who fell at his feet and 
begged for his life. By the command of 
the mysterious horsemen, Gallicanus 
spared his life, and took him and his two 
sons prisoners. The rest of the Scythians 
submitted ; and the tribunes, and many 
persons in authority, in Dacia and Thrace, 
became Christians; those who refused 
were expelled from their offices. Galli- 
Ciinus, immediately after the victory, 
vowed himself to a religious life, and, on 
his return to Rome, voluntarily renounced 
his marriage with Constance, liberated 
five thousand slaves, distributed his goods 
to the poor, and lived at Ostia with Hi- 
larinus, a holy man, whose house he 
enlarged for the reception of pilgrims. 
Gallicanus, John, and Paul were martyrs 
iu the time of Julian the apostate. Con 
stance persuaded her father to build a 
church at the tomb of St. Agnes. There 
she spent the rest of her life with Attica 
and Artemia. Leggendario dellc Santis- 
tiimc Veryini. Heuschenius, in AA.SS. 

Constantia, a nun, is not mentioned 
in contemporary records as a daughter 
of Constantino. His illegitimate daughter, 
Constantia, was present at Milan at the 
marriage of his step-sister, Constantia. 
Baillet suggests that possibly there was 
( oiistantia, a member of the imperial 
family, but not the daughter of Coiistan- 
tine. Sigonius, dc Occidentals Imperio, 
iii. K&gt;. Lebeau, Hist, du Baa Empire, i. 
141, 391. 

B. Constance (4) or CONSTANTIA, 
Nov. 7, V. Abbess. f 1218. 
Daughter of Alphonso, king of Castile : 
took the veil, 11^7, in tin- &lt; istnviaii 
monastery of St. Mary of Monreal, at 
Burgos, and was abbess there from 1 _ &lt;&gt;."&gt; 
until I-M-. lit -nr n [\u-7.. LUia Cistercii. 

B. Constance &lt; &gt; Donati, Dec. 
17. -f early 1-ltli century. &lt;J.&gt;.\ 



Her name in the world was PICCARDA. 
Sh&gt; and Dante s wife, Gemma, were 
daughters of Simon Donati, who, in 
r_v 1 , was ambassador from the Republic 
of Florence to the famous Corradino of 
Germany. Piccarda was betrothed, by 
her parents, to Rosselino della Tosa. 
She determined not to marry, and fled 
to the convent of Sta. Maria di Monti- 
celli. Her father was very angry. 
Persuasions and threats failing to induce 
her to return, he tried to break the door. 
Not succeeding in that, he procured a 
ladder from some peasants, got into the 
courtyard and frightened the nuns, but 
had to go away without his daughter. 
His son Corso Donati, however, went by 
night with several men. They found 
Piccarda with the nuns in the choir, 
tied her with ropes, and took her away 
by force. Corso, to escape the excom 
munication incurred by carrying off a 
nun, did penance by going to the convent 
church on a solemn day in his shirt, 
with a rope round his neck. In presence 
of all the nuns, many monks, and a great 
gathering of clergy and people, he asked 
pardon of God and the nuns, and obtained 
absolution. All the companions of his 
violence came to untimely and horrible 
deaths. Constance was married to Tosa ; 
but having made a vow of virginity, she 
prayed for some disfiguring disease. She 
only survived her marriage a few months, 
and died dressed iii the Franciscan habit. 
Dante met her brothers Corso and Forese 
in purgatory ( Purgatorio, xxiv. ). They 
told him that their sister was in paradise, 
and there he met her among the blessed. 
Paradi mt, iii. Wadding, Annul es, iii. 
HUM Seraficaj iii., where she is called 
bv mistake Ricarda. Brocchi, Snnti f 
/&gt; "// Fiurcntini. Rossetti, Shadow of 
Dante. 

BB. Constance (i&gt;) Xira and 
Mary Fernandez, May 30. Probably 
1 "th cent. They lived at Evora in Portu 
gal, by the work of their own hands 
and on the alms of the pious. Their 
reputation for sanctity attracted so many 
persons that a monastery was built for 
them under the invocation of ST. MONICA 
and the rule of St. Augustine. Constance 
\vas prioress and Mary deputy prioiMi 
or vicar. AA.SS. t from Cardoso. 



206 



B. CONSTANCE 



B. Constance (7). OS.D. fc. 
1 tii H &gt;. Nun under B. ANTOMA GUAINARI 
at Brescia. 

B. Contessa, Sept. 8 (Latin, CMI- 
TISSA), V. "f r. i:;ns. Not mentioned 
in the martyrologies, but worshipped at 
Venice from the time of her death. Of 
the noble Venetian family Tagliapietri. 
Her parents did not approve of her daily 
attendance at the church of St. Main-. 
They forbade the servants to take her in 
the family gondola. Next morning she 
begged the gondoliers to take her to 
church as usual. They refused, not 
daring to disobey her father. Her apron 
served her for a boat and took her 
safe and dry to church. While she 
prayed she left the world, in the 
thirteenth year of her innocent life. 
AA.8S. 

St. Copagia, or POMPEIA, queen of 
Armorica. Born in the ."&gt;th, died in the 
6th century. Wife of Hoel I., son and 
successor of Budic. Hoel and Copagia, 
with several children, took refuge at the 
court of their relation, King Arthur, in 
Great Britain. Hoel returned to his own 
country in 518, drove out the French, 
and recovered the kingdom. Soon after 
wards he went again to England to help 
King Arthur, and there he died, in 545. 
Copagia spent more than half her life 
in England. Her sons, Tugdual and 
Leonor, were born there. On his father s 
death, Tugdual, who was at the head of 
a monastery, resolved to return to his 
native country. His mother, his sister 
SEVA, and seventy-two monks went with 
him. They landed near the Conquet, in 
the parish of Ploumagoer, in Leon. 
Copagia s eldest son, Hoel II., surnamed 
Jona, was now king. He gave his 
brother a piece of land in that neighbour 
hood, where he built a monastery. Tug- 
dual travelled all over Brittany, teaching 
the people and performing miracles of 
charity, until, in every district of the 
country, people begged to have a few 
of his monks settled amongst them, 
and offered land and service to build 
suitable residences for them. The 
principal monastery that Tugdual built 
was at Trecor, now Treguier, and there 
he was so much esteemed that the in 
habitants of the neighbourhood chose 



him for their bishop. Childebert, king 
of France, gave him the bishopric, and 
desired that he should come to Paris to 
be consecrated. This he did about 552. 
Guerin, Petita Boll. 

St. Coppa, or COBBA, Jan. 18, V. 
Supposed 5th century. Daughter of 
Baedan. Perhaps same as CIPIA, mother 
of St. Bite, and veiled by St. Patrick. 
O Hanlon, iii. 245. 

St. Coprica, April 7, M. with Victor, 
in Upper Libya. AA.SS. 

St. Corcair (1), March 8 (Cue A(,I.\, 
CURACH, QUORRAIR), V. Daughter of 
Corpreus, son of Alild, king of Ultonia. 
Her mother s name was Lassara. Sister 
of St. Frigidian or Findian, bishop of 
Lucca, who converted his father, mother, 
and Corcair. She was to have married 
the King of Hungary, but took the veil 
instead. Findian raised her from tho 
dead. Nobody dared to touch her grave : 
if birds flew over it they fell dead. A 
bishop wanted to translate her relics and 
was stricken blind. Colgan. 

St. Corcair (2), Nov. 10, may be the 
same as Corcair (l). 

St. Corccagia, or CURCAGIA, July 2 1 . 
Sister of St. Tinan. Patron of Kilcur- 
gagia, in Ireland. 

St. Cordola, CORDULA. 

St. Cordula, or CORDOLA, Sept. 2, Oct. 
22, V. M. The only one of the com 
panions of ST. URSULA to whom the 
Roman Nartyrology decrees a separate 
commemoration, and who is honoured 
with a semi-double rite throughout the 
Church. Many miracles attended her 
translation. Legend says she landed at 
Cologne with St. Ursula and the eleven 
thousand. Her courage failed when she 
saw the slaughter of her companions ; 
she fled, and hid in one of the ships. 
Two days afterwards she repented of her 
cowardice, and presented herself to tho 
barbarians, who killed her. Some 
accounts make her a daughter of Avitus 
and sister of ST. COLUMBA (0). About 
the middle of the 12th century she 
appeared to ST. HELENTRUDE, a nun at 
Heerse in the diocese of Paderboru, and 
told her that her festival was to be kept 
the second day after that of her com 
panions. She also appeared to Inge- 
brand do Eurke, a brother hospitaller of 



ST. ( K KKD 



207 



St. John Baptist of Jerusalem at Cologne, 
and pointed out to him the place where 
her body lay in an orchard. AA.SS. 

/, _ /&lt;/&lt; inltin ". 

St. Corintha, QUINTA. 

St. Corinthe, Feb. 8, V. M. at Alex 
andria, c. 252. Refusing to worship 
idols, she was tied by the feet, dragged 
through the city, and torn to pieces. 
7i..V. Canisius, Catrchism. 

SS. Cornelia &lt; 1 ) and Cornelia, April 
20j MM. in Africa. They may bo two 

CORNKLIAS. 

St. Cornelia &lt;- ), March :n, M. in 
Africa. Her relics were brought to 
Hrittany. It.M. 

St. Cornelia (3), April 14, M. 
AAJ88. 

St. Corona (1), May 14, M. c. 177, 
with St. Victor, in Syria, or at Lycos, in 
tin: Thebaid. Patron with St. Victor 
of Feltri. A soldier s wife. She was 
sixteen, and had been married a year 
and four mouths, when she saw St. 
Victor, a Koman soldier, bravely under- 
tfoing many torments for the love of 
Christ. She addressed to him words of 
encouragement and blessing, and was 
therefore arrested by Sebastian, the 
general, and commanded to sacrifice to 
the gods. She saw two crowns falling 
from lioavi-n. one for Victor and one for 
herself. She replied, "My name is 
Corona, and would you have me lose my 
eternal crown ? " Then the general 
ordered t\vo palm trees to be bent down 
by the soldiers and Corona to be bound 
to them with strong cords. She was 
torn in t\vo by the flying back of the 
trees. St. Victor was then flayed and 
beheaded. The Church commemorates 
them together. R.M. AA.SS. Callot, 
Iiini jrs. lIuKonbeth. She is mentioned 
in a litany used in England in the 7th 
century. Mabillon, IV/tra Analecta, 

p. 660. &lt; &lt;&gt;Hi]&lt; - : Kl IIANA (1). 

B. Corona (2), April 24, V., was & 

n&lt;:nrli-tiin- Dim nt Klrhr, in Valencia, 

Spain. She worki-d miracles before and 

after In T d ath, and was revered by the 

tint, ilu - -liuus, Men. ! &gt; //. 

Hnisrlirhiiis. . I . | . ,S s. , from Salazar. 

St. Corth, OTHOBTH. 
St. Cortilia, Jan. 2:;, V. M. at K .me. 
AA.8S, 



Costanza, CONSTANT i :. 

St. Coteusa, Juno 1, M. with ST. 
An I;OA. AA.SS. 

St. Cotia(l), COTILIA. 

St. Cotia (2), or GOTHIA, Oct. 1, M. 
at Tomis, in Lower Moosia. AA.SS. 

St. Cotidia, April 30, M. at Alex 
andria. AA.SS. 

St. Cotilia, May 15 ( CHOTICLIA, 
CHOTTIA, COTIA ( 1 ) ), M. AA.SS. 

St. Cotilia, Jan 2.J, V. M. Mas 
Latrie, Tre sor. 

St. Covita, QUINTA. 

Ste. Coyere, or COH^RIA, Aug. 1. 
Ste. Coyere is the name of a church in 
the diocese of Chalons - sur - Marne. 
founded in memory of the junction of 
the two chains of St. Peter, recorded in 
ancient legendaries. Chastelain. 

St. Coyta, QUINTA. 

St. Craphaildis, or EAPHAILDIS, 
Nov. 12, M. perhaps &lt;&gt;."&gt;&lt;&gt; or t&gt;33. She 
and her sister, Berna, kindly received 
St. Livin, an Irish ecclesiastic, who, in 
return for their hospitality, restored 
sight to Ingelbert, son of Craphai ldis, 
who had been blind thirteen years. Most 
of the inhabitants of Flanders and Bra 
bant were pagans, and St. Livin was 
very ill-received among them, and finally 
murdered at the house of Craphai ldis, 
at Escha, a village near Ghent. Cra- 
phaildisandher little sou, Brixius (Brice), 
were murdered also. Ho was buried in 
the same grave with St. Livin, who had 
shortly before baptised him ; and Cra 
phaildis was buried near them. Liviu s 
Life, written by Bauiface. Lauigau. 
i . n tier. 

St. Crasta, CHHISTA. 

St. Credula (I), or CKKDOLA, May 1 3, 
M with Aphrodisius at Alexandria. 
AA.88. 

St. Credula (2), April 17, M. in 
Africa. AA.SS. Migne. 

St. Credula ( 3;, or OUITULA, May 13, 
M. at Alexandria. 

St. Creed, or CUIDA, is commemorated 
at the village and church of Creed, 
Cornwall. It is supposed that Crediton 
and Sancroed take their names from this 
saint, who was probably one of the Welsh 
missionaries who settled in Cornwall, 
iton. Smith ami \Vace. Parker, 
Cnl -inlnr of Anylican Church. 



208 



ST. CRESCENTIA 



St. Crescentia ( 1 &gt;, Jutfe 1 :&gt;, M. 
c. 3oo. 

Represented holding a palm, a little 
boy, St. Vitus, standing beside her. 

Wife of St. Modestus. Hylas, a rich 
citizen of Mazara, in Sicily, gave his 
infant son, Vitus, to Crescentia to be 
nursed. She and her husband brought 
up the child as a Christian, and had him 
baptised. When he was seven he gave 
sight to the blind and performed other 
miraculous cures, especially on those 
possessed of devils. Hylas was very 
angry, and, after trying in vain to induce 
his son to abandon the despised sect of 
the Christians, he brought him before 
Valerian, the governor of the town. 
Valerian ordered him to be scourged. 
When the executioner tried to obey, his 
arm was paralyzed. Vitus restored the 
powerless arm by making the sign of the 
cross over it. Valerian, considering the 
boy s tender age, sent him back to his 
father, who tried to pervert him by the 
seductions of pleasure. Modestus, 
warned by a dream, took Crescentia and 
Vitus and crossed over to Leucania. 
Diocletian sent for Vitus to cure his 
daughter, which he did. The emperor 
then tried to bribe the boy and his foster- 
father and mother with gifts and promises, 
to renounce their religion. These gentle 
means failing, they were cast into a dark 
prison, thence brought into the amphi 
theatre in presence of a multitude of 
people, and put in a caldron of boiling 
pitch. They sang praises to Christ in 
the caldron, and came out unhurt. A 
lion was then let loose to kill them. It 
licked their feet and lay down quietly. 
They were put on the rack, and while 
their bones were being dislocated, an 
earthquake shook the place, a temple 
and all the statues of gods and emperors 
fell down, and many persons were killed. 
An angel led the three martyrs from the 
place of torture to the banks of the river 
Silorus, where they died. Their bodies 
were embalmed and buried by a lady of 
high rank named Fi.m; KNTIA. They 
are all commemorated together. 

R.M. Baillet, Vies. Boll., AA.S8. 
()tt, Die Lcgnidc. Wetzer and Welt, 
Diet. Th&gt;l"&lt;/ique, " Saints Auxiliaircs" 
Marfi/rnni Ada 



St. Crescentia i 1 1, June 4, M. in 
Cilicia, or Sicily. AA.8S. Perhaps the 
same as C it KSC I:\TIA &lt; 1 i. 

St. Crescentia (3), May r&gt;, M. at 
Rome. AA.SS. 

St. Crescentia (4), Aug. 4, M. with 
ST. JUST A ( ] ). I Juried in the Via 
Tiburtana at Rome. Mart, of Corrd. 
AA.SS. 

St. Crescentia (:&gt;),V. Abbess. 8th 
century. Accompanied St. Boniface to 
Scotland. Perhaps same as CUETICIA. 
( $c,i THTDUANA.) Forbes. 

St. Crescentia (&gt;), V., is placed 
among the Ahemeri, or saints who have 
no certain day dedicated to them, but 
she is commemorated by some people, 
Aug. 10. All that is known of her is 
from St. Gregory of Tours. On the site 
of an old church near Paris was a stone 
bearing this inscription, "Hie requicscit 
Crescentia, sacrata Deo puella " (" Here 
lies Crescentia, a girl dedicated to God "). 
There was no date nor any record of the 
life of the departed. A certain priest 
thought it might be the tomb of a saint, 
and took a pinch of dust from it to a 
man who was suffering from tertian 
fever ; he immediately recovered. This 
came to be known, and many flocked to 
the tomb to be cured of divers diseases. 
She is particularly successful in curing 
toothache. AA.S8. 

B. Crescentia (7), April o. -f 1 744. 
O.S.F. Mary Crescenz Hosz, or Hois, 
was the daughter of a poor weaver of 
Kaufbeuern, in Bavaria. She ardently 
wished to take the veil in a convent of 
the Third Order of St. Francis in her 
native town. The nuns were so poor 
that they could not take a member who 
had absolutely nothing to contribute to 
the support of the community. They 
allowed her, however, the satisfaction of 
coming when she had a few spare minutes, 
to kneel before a large crucifix standing 
in a corridor of their house. One day 
while she was thus engaged the Saviour 
spoke to her from that cross, saying, 
"This shall be thy dwelling-place." 
She was then twenty years old. Near 
the convent was an inn where people 
made so much noise that they disturbed 
the nuns at their prayers. The mayor 
of the place, though a Protestant, used 



ST. CUNBBURG 



209 



his influence to have the house sold to 
the nuns at a very moderate price, and 
in return obtained the admission of 
Crescentia into their ranks. When first 
she entered, some of the inmates looked 
down upon her, calling her the begjj.-ir, 
and subjecting her to many humiliations, 
but such was her true worth and the in 
fluence of her piety that within a few 
years she was at the head of the house. 
Princes and illustrious persons from all 
parts of Germany, Poland, and other 
countries came to visit her in her humble 
cell. Many pilgrims resort to her tomb. 
Sin: was beatified by Leo XIII. in IJ ni. 
(IiK -rin, PJi., iv. 297. Her Life by 
Father Ignatius Toiler, O.S.F. 

St. Crescentiana, May 5, M. at 
Rome. R.M. AA.SS. 

SS. Creticia and Criduana, VV. 
MM. Conjectured companions of ST. 
Tn-fLA. Greven. AA.SS. Perhaps 
same as ST. CRESCENTIA (5) and ST. 

TlMDUANA. 

St. Crevenna, CREWENNA, or CRO- 
WI.NXA, Oct. 27 and the Sunday nearest 
to Feb. 1st. &lt;;th or 7th century. Com 
memorated at the church and village of 
Crowan, Cornwall. An Irishwoman, who 
came to Cornwall with SS.lA and BREAOA. 
AA.SS. Parker. Smith and WACE. 

St. Criduana. (See CRETICIA.) 

St. Crischona, or CHRISTIANA (oj, pil 
grim with SS. CUNEGUND (1), MECHTUND, 
and Wi BRAND. 

St. Crisconina, Feb. 24, M. One 
of a great number of Christians put to 
death at Nicomedia. No particulars are 
known, but the Church commemorates 
them on this day. AA.SS. 

St. Crispina, Dec. :&gt;. j- :jnu or :*o4. 
A delicate lady, accustomed to every 
luxury of wealth. Of an illustrious 
family, and the mother of several chil 
dren. A native of Thagara, in Procon 
sular Africa. She was brought to trial 
at Thebeete, in Xumidia, before Anulinus, 
proconsul of Africa, in the reign of Dio 
cletian and Maximian ; on her refusal 
to sacrifice to the gods, the proconsul 
ord-r:d her to have her head shaved, 
unl to bo exposed to the derision of 
tli- people. Ho reproached her for 
want of reverence to the gods. Sin; 
replied, "If the gods are an^ry at my 



words, let them speak." She was then 
}&gt;flieaded. SS. MAXIMA, DON ATII.I.A, and 
SECUNDA were her friends, and were mar 
tyred before her. Butler says that Cris- 
pina s Acts, preserved by Mabillon and 
Ruinart, are authentic, though imperfect. 
She is mentioned repeatedly in the writ 
ings of St. Augustine. It is sometimes 
thought there were two Crispiuas mar 
tyred with the other three women. R.M. 
Baillet, Vies. Martyrum Ada. Butler. 
Smith and Wace. 

St. Crispinilla, July 27, or Crispus 
and SPINELLA, M. at Home. AA.SS., sup 
plementary volume. Mart. Auijnstanum. 

St. Cristina, CHRISTINA. 

St. Croctilde, CLOTILDA. 

St. Crona. (See COMGELLA.) 

St. Cronaparva, or Crona Parva, 
July 7. Perhaps a dwarf who attained 
to great holiness. If so, she should be 
patron of dwarfs. Daughter of Diermitu. 
Honoured with her sister, ST. COMGELLA 
(1), ST. FINDABARIA, and two bishops. 

St. Cronsecha, April 4. Irish. 
AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Crora, Oct. 2o, ORORA. 

St. Crotehildis, CLOTILDA (1). 

St. Crowenna, CREVENNA. 

St. Cruimtheresia. (See EBQNATA.) 

St Cuaca, COCA. 

St. Cuach, or CUACHA (1), COCA. 

St. Cuacha ( 2 ), CONINGENIA. 

St. Cuanna, April 10, V. f7l7. 
Abbess in Campo-Lacha, in Regiono 
Bregarum, in Roscommon in Ireland, in 
the eastern part of the region of Mng- 
bregh. Probably same as CONN A, March 
. 5. Mentioned by Marian Gorman. 
AA.SS., Prseter. 

St. Cucagia, CORCAIR. 

St. Cucca, COCA. 

St. Cucia, COCA. 

St. Cudburg, or Cudburh, CUTH- 



St. Cuenburga, QUIMBURO. 

St. Cumania, March 29. Sister of 
IYMINKA and SODKLBIA, or FEDELMIA. 
Perhaps the same Cumania who is meu- 
&lt;l in the AA.SS. among the Prseter- 
////W, May 29, as daughter of Allean in 
Ard-vludh. Colgan. 

St. Cumerana, WILOEFOHTIH. 

St. Cuneburg, or CUNNEBURG, KYNE- 

! I i;i. \. 



210 



SS. CUNEGUND 



SS. Cunegund 0) (CUNTGUND, Cu- 
, CUNIZA), Mechtund (MONKGUND ), 
Chrischona (CHIUSTIANA,CHRISTSCHON ), 
and Wibiand, June 1(5, VV. Pilgrims. 
These four are supposed either to have 
been among the few survivors of the 
companions of ST. URSULA, and to have 
died on their return journey towards 
Rome, or else to have been journeying 
thither to escape some irruption of bar 
barians. 

Munerus, in his Helvetia Sancta, says 
the noble virgins, Cunigund, Mechtund, 
and Christiana, with their maid Wibrand, 
fell ill at the ancient city of Augusta, 
between Rheinfeld and Basle. They had 
crossed the Rhine near the village of 
Rapperwil, and found a hospice on the 
banks of the river ; and there Christiana 
died. When they attempted to take her 
body to the place of burial, they were 
unable to move it, until they harnessed 
two unbroken young bullocks to the cart 
in which it was laid. The creatures 
dragged the cart over stones and through 
thickets, to the top of a hill, about a 
league below Basle. There Christiana 
was buried, and there, in later years, a 
church was built. The other three 
maidens continued to get worse, and 
died in the same place. At their own 
request their bodies were placed in a 
cart. The bullocks took them to the 
foot of a gigantic oak, where they were 
buried. The place is thence called 
Eichel, or Eichsel, and a church was 
built there also. It is in the diocese of 
Constance. AA.SS. Burgener, Helvetia 
Sancta. 

B. Cunegund (2), March (or Cu- 
NISSA), of Diessen. f 1020. Countess of 
Aridechs. Daughter of Conrad, count 
of Oeningen, on Lake Constance. De 
scended from the Emperor Otho the 
Great. She married Frederick II., count 
of Andechs, and after his death she be 
came the second founder of the monastery 
of St. Stephen at Diessen, where she lived 
and died." Rader, Bavaria Pia. AA.SS., 
Prsetcr. 

St. Cunegund (3), March :;, 22, 
Sept. (CHUNEGUNDIS, CHUNIGUNT, CHU- 
MIIA, OTNKGOXDA, CUNIZA, KONUNGA, 
KINHUTA, KUXUXGA ). f I &lt; &gt;4&lt; ). Daughter 
of Siegfried, count palatine of the Rhine, 



prince of Metz, and of the country about 
the Moselle. Joint patron of Bamberg, 
with her husband, Henry, duke of Bavaria, 
who became king of (Germany as Henry 
II. He was crowned at Maiiitz ; Cune 
gund, at Paderborn. In 1&lt;&gt;14 they went 
to Rome, and received the imperial crown 
from Benedict VIII. 

Represented (}) walking over rod-hot 
ploughshares ; (2) holding a ploughshare 
in each hand; f8) holding the same lily 
as St. Henry ; (4) holding a model of a 
church (as founder of Kauffungen, or 
Cappung, near Cassel) ; (."&gt;) holding, with 
her husband, a model of a church (the 
cathedral of Bamberg). 

According to legend, Henry and Cune 
gund made a vow of virginity before 
their marriage. The Empress was ac 
cused, by certain sons of Belial, of break 
ing her vow, or of conduct unbecoming 
her rank and religious profession. To 
clear herself from this imputation, she 
submitted to the ordeal of walking blind 
folded and barefooted over red-hot 
ploughshares. The accomplishment of 
this feat without injury was received by 
all as a full refutation of the calumny, 
and a proof of divine protection. When 
Henry perceived that he was near death, 
he called Cunegund s relations and the 
chief men of the empire, and said, "I 
give back to you and to God this holy 
virgin, who was lent to me by Christ." 

There does not seem to be any autho 
rity in contemporary records, either for 
the story of the ploughshares or that of 
the vow of virginity. 

Henry and Cunegund built many 
churches, monasteries, and charitable 
institutions in various parts of Germany. 
The most famous was the cathedral of 
SS. Peter and George, at Bamberg. 
Cuiiegund built, at Kauffungen, with her 
own revenues, a Benedictine monastery, 
in honour of Christ and His cross, in 
gratitude for her recovery from a serious 
illness. Henry made some magnificent 
gifts to the church attached to it, in 
cluding many ornaments and vessels of 
gold and precious stones, for the service 
of the altar and the dress of the priests. 
He died before the monastery was 
finished, and Cunegund took charge of 
the empire until the accession of Conrad 



ST. CUXEGIM) 



Jll 



II. He was elected Kmperor Sept. s, 
K 24, with tremendous acclamation, by 
an immense assembly of bishops, princes, 
ami nobles encamped at Kamba, on the 
Rhine. When the election was decided, 
the widowed Empress stepped into the 
circle of electors and, with noble words 
i ^seemed that noble woman, gave to 
the chosen sovereign the regalia that had 
been in her care. 

D afterwards she invited several 
prelates to the dedication of her church 
at Kauffungen. After the Gospel of the 
Mass, in place of the imperial robes, she 
put on a brown " very brown," says 
Baillet religious habit, which she had 
made with her own hands. Her hair 
was then cut off. It was kept in that 
convent as a sacred relic. The BishoJ) 
of Paderboru placed the ring on her 
hand and the veil on her head. Thus 
she became a Benedictine nun. 

During her husband s life Cunegund 
brought up several young ladies at her 
court, and having had the learned edu 
cation of the princesses of her time, she 
superintended their studies herself. One 
of these was ST. HEMMA, of Gurk, a near 
relation of the Emperor, and one was Uta 
or Jutta, Cunegund s niece. Jutta was 
much attached to her aunt, and went 
with her into the cloister. Cunegund 
made her abbess, but she was too young 
and fond of pleasure for so great a 
responsibility. She abused her liberty 
by being always last at prayers and first 
at feasts. One Sunday Cuneguud was 
following the cross in a solemn pro 
cession. The abbess was not there. 
Everybody was scandalized. Cunegund 
went to her niece s room, and found her 
:ing and amusing herself with other 
girls. The pious aunt not only uttered 
words of reproof, but struck her on the 
right cheek, where the mark of her 
fingers remained like a seal, ever after, as 
u warning to Jutta and others. 

l)iirin _r Cune^und s cloister life she 
every attempt to treat her as 
Kmpress, and tried to make and consider 
herself ! . of the nuns. On her 

deathbed she saw her attendants pre 
paring a nmgniliceiit embroider* -1 whito- 
and-^old covering. She be m to 

it away, and made it her last request 



that she should be buried in her habit, 
like the other nuns. She was laid by 
the side of her husband at Bamberg, and 
worked miracles there. Pope Innocent 
III. canonized her in 1200. 

R.M., March 3. Her Life was first 
written by a monk or canon of Bamberg 
in I I .M. , when Henry was canonized. It 
is given in the AA.SS. Butler. Baillet. 
Mrs. Jameson. Ditmar, Chronicle, vii. 
Pertz, Monumenta Germanise, iv. 823. 
Giesebrecht, Dt-utschlands Kaiserzeit, ii. 
223. Callot, Images. Bilder Lcgende. 
Mancini, Pltti Gallery. Die Attribute der 
Heiligen. A portion of the coronation 
mantle of Henry II., embroidered by 
Cunegund, is shown in Lady Marion 
Alford s Needlework as Art, plate H&gt;. 
This mantle was presented by Henry 
and Cunegund to the church of Bamber*?. 
where it is still preserved in the form of 
a chasuble. 

St. Cunegund (4), July 24 (GUNE- 

(iUM), KlXGA, KlOGA, RUNEGUNDIS, ZlGUA, 

XIN;A, etc.), 1224-1292. V. 3rd 
O.S.F. Queen and patron of Poland. 
Founder of the convent of Saudecz. 

Represented ( 1 ) as a queen ; (2) as a 
Franciscan nun, with her shoes hanging 
from her girdle. 

Daughter of Bela IV., king of 
Hungary ( 1 23.")- 1 2 7&lt; &gt;). Her mother was 
Mary, daughter of the Emperor Alexis 
Uucas, a princess brought from Con 
stantinople for Bela by his father, 
Andrew II. ( 12&lt;.~&gt;-1 23.")), on his return 
journey from Jerusalem. Cunoguud was 
sister of ST. MARGARET OF HUNGARY, and 
niece of ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY, 
great-niece of ST. HEDWIG, and niece and 
sister-in-law of B. SALOME OF POLAND. 
She married Boleslaw, surnamed the 
&lt; haste, king of Poland, a refugee at hoi- 
father s court. Ho was extremely pious, 
but sadly wanting in decision, energy, 
and the qualities most desirable in the 
ruler of au unsettled, half-civilized 
people, struggling against the. invasions 
of the Tartars. When ho was entreated 
to lead his armies against his country s 
foes, he so far yielded as to rido into the 
ranks of war, and although his devout 
sloth refused to strike a blow, ho had the 
coolness to sit still upon his horse, 
holding up his hands in prayer, while 



212 



ST. CUNEGUND 



his more practical companions |ave away 
their lives around him. Besides the 
horrors of the Tartar incursions, his own 
vassal princes were beyond his control, 
and he fled for aid to the King of 
Hungary, who was quick to see the 
advantage of marrying his daughter to 
the young king, and his brother Koloman 
to B. SALOME, the sister of Boleslaw. As 
Boleslaw returned with his bride to 
Cracow, the clergy and people at each 
town came out to meet the young 
sovereigns, with joyful acclamations and 
high hopes that now their misfortunes 
were over and prosperity was dawning 
for them. Cunegund stayed at Cracow 
with her mother-in-law, Grzymislawa, 
until she had learnt the Polish language. 
Thrice during the long reign of Boleslaw 
did the Tartars invade Poland. The 
first time, about 1238, Boleslaw shut him 
self up in a fortress and prayed, but left 
the fighting to others. Within a few 
years came a second invasion. He fled 
again to Hungary with his wife ; and 
when in 1241, Henry, duke of Silesia, 
son of St. Hedwig, with all the best and 
noblest sons of Poland, went to almost 
certain death in defence of their father 
land and of Christendom, Boleslaw and 
Cunegund were fugitives from their un 
happy country. Hundreds of their sub 
jects were massacred or dragged off to a 
miserable captivity ; churches, monas 
teries, and towns were destroyed, and 
the country laid waste. 

In 12.")&lt;S there was no nunnery left 
standing in the lands belonging to 
Boleslaw. With the advice of his rela 
tions and the chief personages of Poland, 
and in accordance with the wish of his 
late sister, Salome, that there might be 
a refuge for sick, poor, and unmarried 
princesses and other noble ladies in 
Poland, he and Cunegund founded, at 
Zawichost, a convent of the Order of 
St. Francis. There, in the next year, 
he buried his pious mother, Grzymislawa. 
In J2GO the Tartars came and destroyed 
that and many other centres of religion 
and progress. Between 12.~&gt;s and 1271* 
Boleslaw and Cunegund founded the 
monastery of Sandecz. They became 
members of the Third Order of St. 
Francis, and solemnly took for life the 



vow of chastity which they had hitherto 
made privately from year to year. From 
this time Cuneguud went barefooted. 
As this was painful and injurious in that 
severe climate, her confessor forbade her 
to go anywhere without shoes. She 
obeyed him to the letter, while defeating 
the spirit of his prohibition, by wearing 
them hanging from her girdle. He again 
interfered, and she wore shoes on her 
feet, but with the soles cut away so that 
she was still barefooted. 

Boleslaw s death in 1270 relieved his 
country from " the leaden weight of his 
ignorant and disastrous piety." ( une- 
gund, with her sister, B. YOLAND (3), or 
Helen, took the veil in the monastery of 
Sandecz. 

Cunegund died in 1202, and was 
thenceforth regarded and invoked as a 
saint by the Poles. Pilgrimages were 
made to her tomb, although she was not 
canonized until nearly four hundred 
years afterwards by Alexander VIII., 
1(500. She is especially venerated by the 
inhabitants on the Polish side of the 
Carpathian Mountains. 

On one of ( unegund s visits to her 
father, Bela asked what he should give 
her. She said, " Give me something 
that will be a blessing to my people and 
be of use to both rich and poor." They 
went to visit the salt-mines at the foot of 
the mountains between Hungary and 
Poland. The queen said, " Give me this 
mine." The king agreed, and she threw 
her ring in to take possession of it. Up 
to that time there was no salt in Poland, 
and the people suffered much for want 
of it. On her return to ( Vacow she dis 
covered the mine at Vieliczka, and 
ordered excavations to be begun imme 
diately, and had a piece of the salt 
brought to show to her husband. They 
broke it, and behold ! the queen s ring 
was in it. 

Cunegund had a great veneration for 
St. Stanislas (martyred May 7, 1070), 
and laboured for his canonization, which 
was accomplished in 1 253. 

Dlugosch, Hist. Pohmise, vi., vii. Pertz, 
Script. Germ., xxi. Salvandy, Hist. &lt;l&gt; 
Pologne. Cron. Scraphica. Bosch, in 
AAJ3&. from a Life by Dlugosch. 
Wolski s very readable sketcli of Polish 



ST. 

history, in Knglish. Dunham, Hist, of 
Poland. 

St. Cunegund &lt; ."&gt;), or KUNHUTA. 
1 - &lt; ;. ".-1 : 12 1 . Patron of Bohemia. Sister 
of Wenceslas IV. (1278-1 ;jn:), the Good, 
kinij of Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland. 
1 .lighter of Primislaus Ottocar II., king 
of Bohemia (125:3-1278). Cunegund (."&gt; ) 
was betrothed to the son of the Emperor 
Rudolph I. The marriage was put off 
on account of a quarrel between the 
Emperor and his son ; and Cunegnnd, 
with fourteen girl-friends, went into a 
Franciscan convent, which was ruled by 
her great-aunt, ST. AGNES, princess of 
Bohemia. After a short residence there, 
( unegund was brought back to court, 
and given in marriage to Rudolph, son 
of Rudolph, prince of Swabia. At his 
death she became a nun in the Benedic 
tine monastery of St. George at Prague. 
There she attained to great sanctity and 
a wonderful gift of prayer, and gained 
admirable victories over the devil. She 
was buried in the chapel of St. Anne. 
Some say she was never married, but 
that her sister Agues was married to the 
Kmperor s son, and after his death joined 
( uiieguud in the monastery of St. George, 
and died piously there. 

( hanowski tells that at the chapel of 
x t. Ivunhuta at Strazow, on a mountain 
near the borders of Bohemia and Moravia, 
is a spring of water, to which, in time of 
drought, the inhabitants go in procession 
with prayers and hymns. They stir up 
the water and then disperse ; and it 
hardly ev&lt; r happens that after this cere 
mony they reach their homes without 
rain. 

St. Cunera, or KUNEHE, Oct. 27, 

martyrdom ; June 12, translation, V. M. 
or ."inn. Patron of Durstod, near 
Utrecht. 

!{ -jin \s( -nt ! with a demon on her 
.sh Milders, trying to suffocate her. 

MIT legend, from a sermon of the 
b&lt; -ginning of the 14th century, is as 
follows : 

\Vlnn BT, UKHULA was going on her 
pilgrimage, she sent to her cousin Cunera, 
who was living with her parents, Ann-- 
Hus and Florentia, at Orcada &lt; sonic jn-- 
ona say this is Orkney; others, York ; 
others, Utrecht), begging her to join the 



218 



expedition. Cunera complied. When 
Ursula and her companions wore mar 
tyred at Cologne, Radbod, king of 
Rhenen (now Dnrsted ), seeing the others 
cruelly slaughtered, and Cunera willing 
to meet the same fate for the love of 
Christ, saved her life and took her safely 
to his town, where she lived a virtuous 
and religious life, relieving the poor to 
the best of her power. She inspired 
the king with so much confidence that 
he gave her the charge of all his posses 
sions. The queen was jealous, and often 
tried to shako his good opinion. One 
day Cuuera was going with a bundle of 
bread and other food for the poor, who 
were begging at the gate. The queen 
said to her husband, " You never will 
believe me. Call Cunera, and see for 
yourself how she wastes your substance." 
He called her and looked into her 
bundle. Behold ! it was full of chips of 
wood (assuJas ; other MSS. have Tiastulas 
or hastilia, spears or halberds a more 
suspicious thing to be giving away than 
bread !). The king reproached his wife 
with hard words. Then she determined 
to rid herself of Cunera. Accordingly, 
during his absence, she ordered the ser 
vants to put her to death. They threw 
her down, strangled her with a towel, 
and then buried her in the stable. When 
the king came home from hunting, the 
queen went to meet him, all smiles. 
After a short time he asked for Cunera. 
She answered that her father and mother 
had fetched her away. Meantime the 
king s horse was led to the stable where 
she was buried. Neither whip nor spur 
could make him enter. While the king 
was at supper one of the servants saw, 
in the stable, lights in the form of a 
cross. He ran and told bis master, 
ral persons saw the lights from a 
little distance, but when they went into 
the building they could see nothing. 
Radbod ordered the place to be searched. 
The earth was found to bo newly dug, 
and soon were discovered the body of the 
holy maiden and the towel with which 
she had been strangled. It was pre 
served at Rhenon, and wrought miracles. 
1 1 ai Ihod punished the queen so unmerci 
fully that she lost her reason, and for 
three days wandered about, raving and 



214 



ST. CUNGILD 



tearing her hair. At last Ilie threw 
herself from a height and perished 
miserably. The king, deprived of the 
solace of Cunera s presence, turned his 
palace into a church in her honour, and 
endowed it. St. Willibrod, in G!S, 
promised the inhabitants of Ehenen to 
make a translation of their saint, but 
forgot it while engaged in preaching and 
converting the Germans. Some time 
afterwards, he was nearly drowned in a 
storm on the Rhine. He humbly prayed 
for help, and his ship arrived safely 
at Ehenen. Then he remembered his 
promise, and confessed his neglect. He 
raised the body of the holy virgin from 
the ground, with all fitting ceremony 
and solemnity. (This was equivalent 
to canonization.) 

Papebroch considers the legend ill 
put together, and parts of it unlikely. 
He thinks it more probable that Cunera 
lived about the year 700, and says that 
her being one of the companions of St. 
Ursula is mere conjecture. 

AA.SS. Cahier. Forbes, Scottish 
Kalendars. 

St. Cungild, or CUNHILD, GUNTILD. 

St. Cunichildis, GUNTILD. 

St. Cunihilt, GUNTILD. 

St. Cuniza, CUNEGUND (3). 

St. Cunnyburrow, KYNEBURGA. 

St. Cuntild, GUNTILD. 

St. Curach, CORCAIR. 

St. Curielle, EUBIELA. 

St. Cuthbritha, CUTHBURGA. 

St. Cuthburga, Aug. :-H (CUDBURG, 
CUDBURH, CUTHBRITHA, etc.). "J" c. 720. 
Queen of Northumberland and abbess of 
Wimborne. She was the daughter of 
Quenred, brother of Cead walla, king of 
Wessex (685-688). Her brothers were 
Ingild, great-great-grandfather of Egbert, 
and direct ancestor of Alfred the Great, 
and St. Ina, king of Wessex. (See 
ETHELBURGA (2).) Her sisters were QUIM- 
BURGA, Edburga, and Tetta. Ceadwalla 
became a Christian in 688, and went to 
Rome to be baptized, resigning the 
throne to his nephew Ina. Cuthburga 
was a pupil of ST. HILDELID, second 
abbess of Barking. Cuthburga married 
Aldfrid, or Alfrith, king of Northumber 
land (685-705). He was the illegitimate 
son of Oswin, king of Northumberland, 



and was educated among the monks of 
Ireland, or lona. He was learned in the 
Scriptures, and was the friend of Adam- 
nan and of St. Bennet Biscop. 

There is some discrepancy in the 
accounts of the married life of St. Cuth 
burga, as she is confounded with ST. 
KYNEBURGA (1), who married Alcfrith. 
It has been said, on the one hand, that 
Aldfrid and Cuthburga lived a celibate 
life as brother and sister ; on the other, 
that she was the mother of his son 
Osred, and perhaps of ST. OSANNA. 
Another account has it that she was the 
wife of Osred, whom she left on account 
of his godless and dissolute life. Aldfrid 
and Cuthburga separated from religious 
motives. Cuthburga took the veil with 
her sister, ST. QUIMBURGA, at Barking. 
This nunnery was famous for the zeal of 
the nuns in the study of sacred and 
classic literature. Ina, now king of 
Wessex, seeing that his sisters had de 
voted themselves to the service of God, 
and desiring to build a church for the 
good of his soul and the advantage of his 
people, built a monastery, between 7on 
and 705, for Cuthburga, at Wimborne, 
in Dorsetshire, near his own residence. 
Cuthburga was its first abbess. Quim- 
burga was a nun there with her. 

Wimborne soon became even more 
famous than Barking as a training-school 
for learned and active women. 

Thence went, in the next generation, 
ST. LIOBA, ST. WALBURGA, and others, at 
the call of Boniface, the great English 
apostle of Germany, to help in his grand 
mission. The abbey of Wimborne was 
destroyed by the Danes about the year 
900, and afterwards restored, dedicated 
anew in the name of St. Cuthburga, and 
given to secular canons. St. Cuthburga s 
burial-place is still shown under the 
wall of the chancel. AA.SS. Lappen- 
berg, Hist. England under Anglo-Saxon 
Kings. Strutt, Chronicle of England. 
Smith and Wace. Diet. Christian J&gt; / /;/. 
Montalembert, Monks of the W *t. 
Bede. Alford, Annalcs Ecclcsise Amjli- 
canse. Capgrave, Lcgenda Anylise. Anylo- 
Saxon Chronicle. 

St. Cwenburh, QUIMBURGA. 

St. Cwick, KEW. 

St. Cwyllog. 6th century. Sup- 



ST. C YKl.U A 



215 



I founder of the church of Llan- 
gwyllo&lt;r, in Anglesea. Wif- of Medrawd, 
&lt;&gt;r Mordred, nephew of King Arthur. 
SI a is one of an immense number of 
holy sous and daughters attributed to St. 
Caw. Roes, 228. 

St. Cymorth, or COUTH. Daughter 
oi lirychan. (See ALMHEDA.) Wife of 
Brynock Wyddel, an Irishman. Mother 
of Gerwyn and his sisters Mwynen, 
Gwenuan, and Gwenlliw. Cymorth lived 
in Emlyn, on the confines of Carmarthen 
and Pembroke. Her sisters, SS. CKM:I&gt;- 
LON and CLYDAI, appear to have joined 
her in her religious life. Kees. 

St. Cyneburh, KYNEBUUGA. 

St. Cynedridis, KYNEDRIDE. 

St. Cynethritha, KYNEDRIDK. 

St. Cyngar, or RHIENGAR, daughter 
of IJrychan. (See ALMHEDA.) Rees. 

St. Cyniburga, KYNEBURGA. 

St. Cyprilla, July 3, M. at Cyrene, 
in Libya, beginning of -Hh century. 

Represented burning incense. Born 
of Christian parents. Was a widow for 
twenty-eight years. She visited Theo- 
dorus, bishop of Cyrene, in prison, and 
ministered to his wants, with SS. ROA 
and LUCY (5). After his death she was 
accused as a Christian, in the persecution 
under Diocletian, and was beaten. The 
persecutors, apparently anxious to spare 
her life, put burning coals and incense 
in her hands and held them, that she 
might be compelled to sacrifice at least, 
in appearance ; but she called out, " I 
sacrifice to Jesus Christ 1 " Then they 
put her on the equuleus, and otherwise 
tortured her. And she went to meet 
the Bridegroom, torn for His sake, and 
dressed in the purple robe of her own 
blood. Mn. Hnsil. AA.SS. Compare 
with Cvun.i \ 

St. Cyra &lt; 1 &gt;, Aug. :*. Of Berea. 
Sister of ST. MAUANNA. R.M. 

St. Cyra ( 2 .., CERA. 

SS. Cyrena M YRENIA, CYRI^NA, 
CYKIANA, SYKKMA i and Juliana, Nov. 1, 
MM. in ( ilieia, probably in 8U5, under 

; ius. 
lit presented in a brazier. 

na, a native of Tarsus, in C ilieiu. 
would not offer incense to the gods. 
I1&lt;T head and eyebrows were shaved; 
&gt;ln was stripped and taken about tin 



town on an ass. She prayed that she 
might not be seen naked. Those who 
tried to stare at her were struck blind. 
Slu&gt; was taken to Rhosus, and was there 
burnt with Juliana. They both sang 
praises in the fire. 

AA.SS. Men. Basil. Greek Men., ed. 
by Ughelli, in Italia Sacra. 

SS. Cyria ( 1 ), Valeria, and Marcia, 
June ."&gt; and 0, VV. MM. Natives of 
Ceesarea, in Palestine. Converted to 
Christianity. Lived very quietly in a 
small house, and prayed for the conver 
sion of the world and abolition of 
idolatry. At last they were reported to 
the ruler as Christians. On being 
brought before him, they were tortured 
in various ways to induce them to 
renounce their faith. As they persisted 
in their refusal, they died rejoicing 
under the tortures. ST. ZENAIS, V., is 
commemorated as one of them. Pape- 
broch seems to think this is an erroneous 
repetition of the name of ST. ZENAIS, 
matron. R.M., June 5. Papebroch, 
AA.SS. June 6. Men. Basil., June 6. 

SS. Cyria ( 2_) (CYIUCA, CYUINA, or 
GERIA; and Musca, June 17, VV. MINI. 
Two sisters, of Aquileia, of whom the 
former was more given to contemplation, 
and the latter to action. They both led 
a holy life from their childhood. 
AAJ98. 

SS. Cyria &lt; &gt; ), or KYRIA, and Dula, 
April 5. Supposed companions of ST. 
I M 1:111 -i "MIA. (Sec. KYRIA.) Possibly 
Cyria is the same as Pherbutha. Grseco- 



St. Cyriaca ( 1 ), sister of PHOTINA ( 1 ). 

St. Cyriaca (2), or DOMINICA, Aug. 
L l. Time of Valerian or Decius. A 
devout widow, who had her house on the 
Celian Hill at Rome, where Christian 
priests came and offered the holy swri- 
tice, and where she kept many persecuted 
Christians concealed and ministered to 
them. When St. Sixtus, the Pope, was 
seized by the enemies of the Church, he 
deputed St. Lawrence to distribute the 
money in his care to the poor. (See 
PATIENCE.) Lawrence found Cyriaca 
sick, and healed her by laying his hands 
upon her. Then ho washed the feet of 
the brethren concealed in her house, and 
gave them a portion of the money 



216 



ST. CYRIACA 



entrusted to him. R.M. Mrs* Jameson, 
Sacred and Legendary Art, ii. 156. 
AAJSOSL 

St. Cyriaca (:*;, May 10, V. M. :;n, 
in Africa, with five other holy virgins, 
one of whom was THEOTIMA, sister of 
Phileteerus. Only known from the not 
very reliable Acts of SS. Philetaerus 
(May li&gt;) and Eubiotus. Cyriaca was 
burnt, and Theotima was slain with a 
sword. 

Papebroch gives the Greek Act* with 
a Latin translation, but considers them 
probably fabulous, and certainly falsely 
ascribed to an eye-witness. 

When Diocletian was in Nicomedia. 
some time after the publication of his 
edict for the extermination of Christi 
anity, he was told of a Christian who 
worshipped God openly with impunity. 
He was very angry, and ordered him 
to be brought before him. He had a 
very white skin and golden beard, and 
the Emperor was so struck by his youth, 
beauty, and gentleness, that he thought 
he was a god, and afterwards tried to 
persuade him to renounce his religion 
and accept honours among the heathen. 
Philetserus rebuked him, and wrought 
a miracle in the name of Jesus Christ, 
which made Diocletian again say that 
Philetaerus was one of the gods. When 
he had seen some more miracles he 
ordered Philetaerus to be set at liberty. 
Soon afterwards Diocletian died, but the 
persecution was continued under Maxi- 
mian, and Philetaerus was brought be 
fore him as an irrepressible Christian. 
Hearing that he had a sister younger 
and more beautiful than himself, who 
was hiding among the mountains with 
other Christian virgins, Maximian or 
dered them all to be brought to him, 
and offered them the greatest honours, 
promising to treat them as his daughters 
on condition that they should sacrifice to 
his gods. Theotima answered, " What 
honour can you (yourself worthy of no 
honour j confer on us, who are servants 
of the true God ? " The Emperor com 
manded those that stood by to strike her 
on the face. Whereupon Cyriaca told 
him he ought to be ashamed of his 
brutality. Maximiau then had Cyriaca 
beaten until she was quite exhausted. 



As Philetaerus prayed that she might 
have strength and courage to undergo 
these sufferings for her Master s sake, 
she revived. Maximian ordered her to 
bo tortured in many cruel ways, and 
finally burnt. Philetaerus and the six 
surviving virgins were condemned to 
hard labour in the island of Proeconesum. 
On the journey the women entreated 
Aristides, the captain of their guard, to 
have their fetters taken off, promising 
to make no attempt to escape, and say 
ing that the fatigue was greater than 
they could bear. He hesitated to comply 
with their request, and, when they had 
gone a little further, the holy maidens 
suddenly disappeared from before his 
eyes, and were never seen or heard of 
more. St. Philetaarus, after many miracles 
and sufferings, received the crown of 
martyrdom. It.M. AA.SS. 

SS. Cyriaca (-t-ll&gt; Besides the 
above, eight Cyriacas appear in the 
calendars on different days and in divers 
places. In some instances the name is 
rendered in Latin DOMINICA. 

St. Cyriacide, or CYRIACITA, Aug. tf, 
M. (Sec MEMMIA.) 

St. Cyriaena, CYKENA. 

St. Cyriana, CYKENA. 

St. Cyrica, CTBIA (2). 

St. Cyrilla (1), called in the Lab- 
bsean Mart. G^EIULLA, Oct. 28, V. M. 
c. 260. Daughter of the Emperor Decius 
and ST. TKYPHONIA. Baptized by St. 
Justin. Tryphonia and Cyrilla were 
instrumental in the conversion of forty- 
six soldiers and their wives, and when 
Claudius, the Emperor, heard of it he 
ordered them all to sacrifice to his gods. 
They were all martyred, and many 
others with them. Cyrilla was slain 
with a sword, and her body thrown into 
the street for dogs to eat. They were 
buried near St. Hippolytus, by St. Justin 
the priest. Their story is partly taken 
from the fabulous Acts of St. Lawrence. 
They are commemorated in the Roimui 
Martyroloay, Oct. 2S, as mother and 
daughter, martyrs, but their relationship 
to Decius is not mentioned. 

AA.SS., Oct. 2:, in the story of the 
forty-six soldiers, etc. Mart, of Salis 
bury. 
St. Cyrilla &lt; 2 ), May KJ, M. c. :;&lt;&gt;;, 



8T, DA. MIAN A 



J17 



at Alexandria. A young girl who re- 
1 t sacrifice to the idols. Tocomjx 1 
her to do so, her arms were held by 
force, and fire and incense placed iii the 
l&gt;alm of her hand, that she might in 
voluntarily shake it off in her pain, and 
might thus be said to sacrifice. She 
held her hand steady until the fire was 
burnt out. She was then further tor- 



tun ul, and beheaded. AA.SS. Neale, 
Hist. E. Church. Compare with the 
story of ST. CYPUILLA. Migne s Jerome 
has SYTILLA for Cyrilla. 

St. Cyrilla &lt;;M, May i:i, M. at 
Poleutia, in Lignria. AA.SS. 

St. Cyrina, CYHIA (2j. 

St. Cyta, SILA. 

St. Cyte, OSITH. 



St. Daama, or DAMIA, May L 7. M. 
at Tomis, on the Black Sea. AAJ38. 

St. Daciana, TATIANA. 

St. Dafrosa, or AFFUOSA, Jan. 4. 
f :{&lt;;:;. Wife of St. Flavian, or Fabian, 
a Roman knight; and mother of SS. 
liii.iANA and DEMETKIA. 

1 hitler says that Ammianus Marcel- 
linus, a pagan historian, and an ofticer 
at the court of Julian the Apostate, 
relates that, in the year JJM, that Em 
peror appointed Apron ianus governor of 
Rome, and that, while he was on the 
way thither, he lost an eye. He ascribed 
the accident to magic, and, as the 
miracles of the Christians were attri 
buted to the same cause, he resolved to 
exterminate them. Among the supposed 
magicians, Flavian was one of the first 
apprehended. He was burnt in the face 
with a hot iron, and banished to Aquae 
Taurinso, now Acquapendente, where he 
di ! of his wounds in a few days. His 
wife Dafrosa was imprisoned in her 
house for some time, and then carried 
outside the gates of Rome and beheaded. 

According to another account, she 
was given into the power of her own 
relations, who tried to induce her to 
marry again and sacrifice to the gods. 
Sh.- \v.is encouraged in her refusal by 
u vision of her husband calling her, and 
thivt- days afterwards she died in pc 

H.M. Bollandus, Ada Sanctonim. 
Butler, in his account of ST. BIBIANA, 
LMWI of tli&gt; l- ,ifii, rt. 

St. Dagila, M. July 1 1_&gt;. 483. 

Jho KVv. \V. M. Sinclair -Smith and 
War..-, /&gt;/,-///,////,// of Christian J! - 
:i&lt;-"l hy ), says she was wife of a steward 
&lt;&gt;! lluneric, king of the Vandals. Sh.- 



had several times confessed her faith 
during the persecution of Genseric, and 
in 4H. {, under his son Htmeric, she was 
beaten with whips and staves until she 
was exhausted, and was then exiled to a 
desert, where she wont with great cheer 
fulness. AA.SS. Arturus a Monastero 
calls her "Saint," and says she was 
beaten to death. 

St. Daire, DAUIA. Irish. 

St. Daludarca, DAHLUGDACHA. 

B. Damgerosa, Nov. 14. lir&gt;o. The 
beautiful daughter of Gandin de Che- 
mire of Cenomannia (le Mans) who 
lived a life of sin with her uncle. The 
Bishop of le Mans remonstrated with 
him in vain. He was struck by light 
ning, and miserably shipwrecked. Dam- 
gerosa, stricken with horror and regret, 
went to the bishop and begged to be 
restored by penance. She made a public 
confession of all her sins, then obtained 
absolution and renounced the world, but 
no convent would receive her, so great 
was the horror of her crime. She lived 
at a place that she inherited from her 
father, built an oratory on a hill, had 
two companions related to her, and re 
mained shut up there doing penance for 
fifty years. Qynecseum. 

St. Damhnade, or DAMHN-AT, June 
1 I, V. Irish. Of Sliove Beagh, in Tyrone. 
."&gt;th century. Patron saint of the coun 
ties of Fermanagh, Cavan, and others. 
Identical with or confounded with ST. 
I) i MNA, or DAMNODA, or DYMNA, surnained 
S&lt; HK.NE or Ochene, i.e. the fugitive. 
Bailer. 

St. Damia, or Daama, May 27, M 
at Tomis, on the Black v i ;t 

St. Damiana. &lt;&gt;th century. An 



218 



ST. DAMNODA 



imperial princess, who sent a !arge sum 
of money to St. Gregory the Pope, for the 
liberation of slaves, as did ST. BOPATBA 
and ST. THEODOLINA. Damiana was 
honoured as a saint at Jerusalem. Mas 
Latrie. Paul La Croix, Vie Militaire et 
Religieux, p. ;so. 

St. Damnoda, DAMHNADE. 

St. Danacha, Nov. 20, V. M. in Persia 
with ST. BAIIUTA. 

St. Danda, March 7. Two saints of 
this name are mentioned among certain 
martyrs in Thrace. AA.SS. 

St. Danne, DOMNA (1), sister of 
Indes, M. with AGAPE and THEOPHILA, 
in the reign of Galerius Maximianus 
(806-311). 

St. Darbelin, Oct. 2(5, V. One of 
four daughters of Mac Taar, who lived 
at Killininny, near Tallaght. The others 
were DAKINNILL, GAEL, and COIMGHEALL. 
Gammack,in Smith and W ace s Dictionary 
of Christian Biography. 

St. Darbile, DERBHILEDH, or DE- 
UIVLA, Aug. 3 and Oct. 20. Daughter of 
Cormac, in county Mayo. 5th or Oth 
century. Gammack, in Smith and Wace s 
Dictionary of Christian Biography. 

St. Dardalucha, or ST. DARDULACHA 
(2), DARLUGDACHA. 

St. Dardulacha, Feb. 1, V. Sup 
posed to be one of the three sisters of 
SS. Gunifort and Gunibald, who went 
with them on their mission to Germany. 
She was worshipped in great devotion in 
Frisingen,as appears in the Breviario Fri- 
singensi. Martyred with her brothers and 
sisters, 420, Feb.l. Dempster, Ex Aucto- 
ribus Laudatis. Bollaudus, in AA.SS., 
thinks Dempster has no good ground for 
this opinion, and that the saint worshipped 
in the new Breviary at Frisingen, and 
not mentioned in the old, is the second 
abbess of Kildare, DARLUGDACHA. 

St. Darerca (1), March 22. Youngest 
sister of St. Patrick. Daughter of Cal- 
phurnius, a Briton, and Concessa, sister 
or niece of St. Martin of Tours. Besides 
St. Patrick, she had a brother Sannan, 
and two, three, or four sisters. Darerca 
was married, first to Con or Conis, 
secondly to Restitutus, a bard, or a 
Lombard, or surnamed Huabard. She 
had seventeen sons, all bishops, and two 
daughters, SS. EcHEAand LALLOCA. Con, 



her first husband, died in England, leav 
ing her enceinte. She went to Ireland, 
where she soon died and was buried, but 
her brother, St. Patrick, raised her to 
life, whereupon she was immediately 
seized with labour pains, and gave birth 
to a son, afterwards distinguished as St. 
Bolcan. The most famous of her chil 
dren were sons of her first husband, SS. 
Mel-Moch, Rioch of Inis-bofinde, and 
Munis. The other, bishops are called 
Crumauius of Leccan, Midgna, Loman, 
Lurach, Loarn, Kieran, Carantoc, Mo- 
calle, Columbus, Brochan, Brochad, 
Brendan, Fine, Melchu. 

Her sisters were SS. LUPITA, RICHELLA, 
W., and SS. TIGRIDA and LIEMANIA, 
who were mothers of saints. LIEMANIA 
has been supposed to be the same as 
Darerca. It has also been said that these 
sisters of St. Patrick were not sisters by 
birth, but disciples ; also that they were 
sisters, but that their marriages and 
families of saints are of later inven 
tion. Colgau. O Hanlon. Smith and 
Wace. 

St. Darerca (2), SARBILIA, or Mo- 
MXNA, July 0. 5th or Oth century. 
Abbess of Kil Sleibhe, that is Mount 
Cullen, in Armagh, Ulster. She was 
called by her parents Sarbilia, and took 
the name of Darerca, either at her bap 
tism, or on making her religious profes 
sion ; a dumb man to whom she gave 
the power of speech called her Nin, Nin, 
which led to her being called Mouinna, 
or Moneuna. She is perhaps the same 
as Modwenna. 

She visited ST. BRIDGET, and won her 
approbation by her great humility. Re 
turning home with her nuns, she was 
entertained by Deneth, who, having no 
thing to give them for supper, killed his 
calf and set it before them. Next morn 
ing the same calf alive and well, or 
another exactly like it, was found in the 
stable with the mother cow. Deneth 
afterwards asked hospitality from Da 
rerca. She had but a little drop of beer 
(cervisia) to give him, but she blessed 
the cup, and immediately it was full. 
She raised a dead girl to life, and per 
formed other miracles. After her death, 
another abbess changed water into 
whisky by praying to St. Darerca on 



ST. DARIA 



219 



behalf of a bishop named Fibartns, who 
WHS very old and feeble. 

She was consecrated by St. Patrick, 
and had eight companions and oneadopted 
son, Luger, afterward bishop of Conallia 
Murthenmensi. 

Some writers call her " Virgin," but it 
is possible that she is the same person 
i A i 1 K mother of several saints. 
Pinius, AA.SS. Itollandi, gives her Life 
from a MS. in the Irish Jesuit Seminary 
at Salamanca. 

St. Darerca (3), April 4. Of Dmim 
Dubhaiu, or Derfrochea, or Derbh fraich. 
Mother of St. Tighernach, bishop of 
( Inaiu-cois, now Clones, in Monaghan, 
Ireland. She was one of several saints 
of the family of the Orghelli. She mar 
ried a man of royal race. For the three 
SS. DAKERCA, and whether they were 
three, two, or only one, consult Colgan s 
Irish Saints ; Lanigan s Ecclesiastical 
Hivtury of Ireland ; the Bollandists, 
J.I .SS., July 6 ; Gammnck, in Smith 
ami "Wace s Dictionary. Bishop Forbes s 
/ar*. 

St. Darerca (4), Jan. l.\ V. Daugh 
ter of Cairbre. 

The Nartyrolofjy of Tallayht com 
memorates the daughters of Cairpre, but 
only Darerca is named in the Martyroloyy 
of Donegal. J. O Hanlon, i. 221. 

St. Daretia, July 1&lt;&gt;. More gene 
rally called DAHIA (:&gt;). M. at Constan 
tinople. AA.SS. 

St. Daria (1), June 17. 1st or 2nd 
century. Either in the reign of Domi- 
tian or that of Marcus Aurelius. Wife 
of St. .\ ieander, who was martyred with 
St. Marciau in Terra di Lavoro (lately 
in the kingdom of Naples). When the 
two martyrs were questioned by the 
jn l^e Maximus concerning their religion, 
and exhorted to abjure it and sacrifice to 
the gods, St. Daria encouraged her hus 
band in liis adherence to his faith, 
advising him to sutler even death for 
Christ s sake. Maximus therefore said 
to her, \\ iek. d and shameless woman, 
why do you advise your husband to do 
that which will causo his death ? " 
said, "In order that he may not die 
eternally." II rod, " Not so ; yon 

wish for his death that you may be free 
t&lt;&gt; marry some one else." Daria said, 



" If you think so, order me to be put to 
death first, for our Lord s sake, if your 
commission authorizes you to sacrifice 
women as well as men." Maximus said 
ho had no command to put women to 
death, but he would have her put in 
prison for the present. After about a 
month, SS. Nicander and Marciau were 
beheaded, and as they were led to the 
place of execution their wives followed 
them, each accompanied by her little 
son, Marcian s wife reproaching him 
with the folly and cruelty of abandoning 
her and his child, and entreating him 
yet to relent and save his life. Daria, 
on the contrary, congratulated her hus 
band that ho was accounted worthy of 
martyrdom. Marcian entreated a Chris 
tian friend who was present to lead away 
liis wife and take care of his child, and 
let him meet his death with courage. 
Then she was led unwillingly home. 
Daria took leave of her husband, rejoicing 
in the honour of being a martyr s wife. 
Nicander blessed his child, and the two 
holy men were beheaded. Henschenius, 
in AA.SS.J from several Acts of different 
dates preserved in various libraries. 
Cahier. 

St. Daria (2), also called MINERVA, 
Oct. 25 and Aug. 12, V. M. under the 
Emperor Valerian. 

Daria and her husband, St. Chrysan- 
thus, or Crysaunt, are joint patrons of 
Reggio, Modena, and Orio in Otranto. 

Chrysanthus was a native of Alex 
andria, and went to Rome with his father, 
who was a senator. Chrysanthus was 
instructed in the Christian religion un 
known to his father, and was baptized 
by a bishop who was hiding in a cave, 
probably in the catacombs. When his 
l:it her heard of it he was very angry, 
and finding himself unable to persuade 
Chrysauthus to renounce his religion, 
and understanding that chastity was the 
groat point with the Christians, and the 
condition on which their God helped 
them, he engaged five beautiful young 
women to seduce his son, promising them 
immense rewards if they succeeded in 
doing so, and threatening various forms 
ot painful death in case of failure. When 
these women tried to please or amuse 
Chryt-anthus, ho prayed, and they fell 



220 



ST. DARIA 



into a deep sleep and could molest him 
no more. As soon as they were removed 
from his room, they awoke. The same 
thing happened again and again. Then 
the senator compelled his son to marry, 
and gave him for a wife Daria, a beau 
tiful and very learned young lady of 
Athens, of suitable rank and wealth. Her 
beauty and her jewels shone like the sun, 
and her philosophy was directed to his 
conversion ; but soon she was converted 
by him, and was baptized. They agreed 
to live an angelic and ascetic life, and to 
devote themselves to the conversion of 
others. The heathen who were not con 
verted by them were displeased at their 
teaching concerning chastityand sobriety, 
and accused them of disloyalty to the 
Emperor and the gods. They were put 
in separate prisons Chrysanthus in the 
Tullian prison, and Daria in one of the 
places called " fornices," under the amphi 
theatre. There she was defended by a 
lion. Chrysanthus and Daria, after being 
subjected to many tortures, were thrown 
into a pit, earth and stones were heaped 
upon them, and thus they were buried 
alive. 

Claudius the tribune, who had ordered 
their torture and execution, was soon 
afterwards converted with his wife, Hi- 
LAHIA, and their two sons. All were 
martyrs, and are commemorated with 
Chrysanthus and Daria, Aug. 1 2. 

A beautiful tomb was erected on the 
Via Salaria in honour of SS. Chrysanthus 
and Daria, and a crowd having assembled 
there on their festival, the entrance was 
walled up, and they also were buried 
alive. In Christian times the tomb was 
restored, a separation was made between 
the grave of the two earliest martyrs and 
the others, and through a window in it 
their bodies could be seen, and also some 
silver vessels which were placed beside 
them. A subdeacon got through the 
window at night to steal the silver, but 
could not find his way out in the dark. 
Fearing detection if he came out by day, 
night after night lie attempted in vain 
to make his escape, until starvation 
compelled him to confess. 

Chrysanthus and Daria are commemo 
rated in the Roman Nartyrolotjy, Oct. 2T&gt; ; 
in the Mcnology of Basil, Oct. 17; with 



other saints on other days, Aug. 1 2, 
Nov. 2 ., :;o, Dec. 1. 

Legenda Aurea. Villegas. Butler. 
Baillet. Surius. Smith and Wace, 
Dictionary of Christian Biography. Acta 
Sanctorum Boll and i, and all collections 
of the lives and legends of the saints and 
martyrs of the first ages of Christianity. 

St. Daria (3j, or Daretia, July li, 
M. at Constantinople. AA.SS. 

St. Daria (4;, mother of ST. URSULA 

St. Daria (6), Feb. 1, V. One of 
ST. BRIDGID S nuns, blind from her birth. 
One evening she and St. Bridgid sat talk 
ing, and never knew when it got dark, 
because the Sun of Righteousness was 
present to their minds. At last Daria 
said, " Bridgid, open my eyes, that I 
may for once see the world I have so 
often desired to see." Then Bridgid made 
the sign of the cross on her eyes, and 
she saw the world, and then she said, 
" Now shut my eyes again, for eyes that 
are blind to the things of this life shall 
be the more steadfastly fixed on Jesus 
Christ." Then Bridgid closed her eyes 
again. AA.SS., in St. Bridgid, Feb. 1. 

St. Daria ( 6), sister of St. Ruadhan, 
abbot of Lothra, in Ireland, middle of 
Oth century. Gammack, in Smith and 
Wace. 

St. Daria (7), Oct. 20. Oth or 7th 
century. Also called SOIDHEALBH, i.e. 
the Fair, daughter of Cathirius, con 
temporary with St. Corbmac, who blessed 
her monastery so that the land became 
very fertile, and was thence called Magh- 
gainnach, now Moygawnagh, in county 
Mayo. J. Gammack, in Smith and Wace. 
She is honoured with St. Derbilia. 
AA.S8. 

St. Darinnill, V. Sister of DARBELIN. 

St. Darlugdacha, DALUDARCA, DAK- 
DULACHA, or DAKDALUCHA (in French 
DOKLAIE), Feb. 1. "f about 524. One 
of ST. BUIDGID S nuns at Kildare. 

( )ne day, not having kept guard over 
her eyes, she fell in love with a soldier, 
and he with her. She thought it a 
horrible sin, and so she filled her wooden 
shoes with hot coals and thrust her feet 
into them, and by the violence of the; 
pain extinguished the "hellish flames 
with which Satan tried to burn her soul/ 
Next day she confessed her sin. ST 






ST. l&gt;KUN.\i;i A 



Bui i Miin was so satisfied with her reso 
lution, that she healed her feet on the 
spot, and no sign of burning remained. 
Darlugdacha was ever after the favourite 
sister of ST. BBLDGID, who appointed her 
to succeed her as abbess, promising her 
that she should rejoin her in paradise 
in a year, which she did. 

Darlugdacha, being exiled from Ireland 
for Christ s sake, visited Nectan, king 
of the Picts, in Scotland, and was present 
at the dedication of the church of Ab r- 
nethy to God and St. Bridgid. Lanigan. 
Colgan, AA.SS. Hibernian. Bollandus, 
AA.SS., Feb. 1. Forbes, Scottish Kalen- 
dars. 

St. Dartinna, TAKTINNA, or TINNEA, 
July :J, V. Irish. Supposed at Kilaird, 
county Wicklow. AA.SS., Prsetcr. 

St. Datica, May 8, M. at Constanti 
nople, with St. Acacius. (See AGATHA 
_ . ) AA.SS. 

St. Dativa (1), Feb. 22, M. at Nico- 
nedia, with ST. ANTIG-A and many others. 

St. Dativa &lt; 2 ), or DATIVUS, March 14. 
M. at Nicomedia, with others. AA.SS. 

St. Dativa ( *) May 8, M. at Constan 
tinople, with St. Acacius. (See AGATHA 
f2).) 

St. Dativa (4;, Dec. ij, M. in the Van 
dal persecution. Sister of ST. DIONYSIA. 
484. Roman Martyrology. Baillet, etc. 

St. Datula, June 2. One of 227 
Itoman martyrs commemorated together 
in the Martyrology of St. Jerome. AA.SS. 

St. Dauphine, DELPHINA. 

St. Dawlitta, a Welsh or Cornish 
form of the name JULITTA. 

St. Debarras, WILOEFOKTIS. 

St. Deborah, DEBOUA, DEBBOHA,DEL- 
I-.OKA, Sept. 1, "The feest also ... of 
saynt Delbora y* prophotisse that w l her 
bousbond Baracke was the thyrde iudge 
. . (of ism* 11 . 

Deborah was a prophetess of Israel, 

jeloiiLjinij to the tribe of Ephraim. She 

is called in the Bible " the wife of Lapi- 

loth. " though some traditions say that 

Barak was her husband. "She dwelt 

mdur the palm tree of Deborah between 

.nmh and B&lt; tb. 1. in mount Kphraim: 
and the children of Israel came up to 
ii i top judgment. 

Tin- Israelites especially the northern 
tribes were at that time "mightily 



oppressed" by Jabiu, king of Canaan, 
who possessed " nine hundred chariots 
of iron, and the captain of whose ]m&lt;\ 
was Sisera." Deborah summoned " Barak, 
the son of Abinoam," to lead ten thousand 
men against the oppressor, and finding 
him unwilling to go alone, she accom 
panied him to the summit of Mount 
Tabor, where the army encamped. 

According to Josephus, the Israelites 
and Barak were struck with fear at the 
multitude of the enemy, and were ready 
to retreat, when Deborah kept them 
steady, enjoining them to give battle 
that very day, for the victory was almost 
in their possession. At a signal from 
Deborah, Barak led his men to the plain 
of Jezreel, to meet Sisera s army. The 
Israelites were much aided by a " pro 
digious tempest ... of rain and hail," 
which beat in the faces of their opponents, 
and cut off their retreat by rendering 
the river Kishon impassable. " The 
stars in their courses fought against 
Sisera." As Deborah had foretold, the 
battle resulted in a decisive victory for 
the Israelites. 

In commemoration of this victory, 
Deborah has left us a song of triumph 
which is one of the earliest compositions 
of the kind in existence, and is con 
sidered to be one of the most ancient 
portions of the Old Testament (Judg. 
iv. .") ). " The Martiloge in enuhjsshe after 
the use of the churche of Salisbury and as 
it is /&lt;//,/, in Sy&lt;m with addicyons. By 
the sayd wretche of Syon liy chard Whyt- 
ford." Flavius Josephus, Of the Anti 
quities of the Jews, bk. v. ch. v. 
Cunningham Geikie, D.D., LL.D., Oil 
Testament Characters. 

St. Decima, April 14, M. AA.SS. 

St. Dediva, EDITNA. 

St. Deel, or DKICOLA, said to bo an 
abbess of Lure, in Franche-Comto. 
Probably it is a mistake for St. Deicolus, 
or Dielf, Jan. IK, abbot of Lure, M. 
about ;2."&gt;. Mas Latrie. 

St. Degnamerita, DIGNAMEIUTA (2). 

St. Deidre, or DEIUDUE, the Irish 
ITA. 

St. Deivota, DEVOTA, Jan. 27, V. M. 

St. Delbora, DEBORAH. 

St. Delinaria. Formerly honoured 
in the Abruzzi. Guerin. Mas Latrie. 



222 



ST. DELPHI \K 



St. Delph, or DiKPFJ-f (man or 
woman). Gives name to the church and 
village of Landulph, in Cornwall, and 
is there commemorated. (Sec DEPPA.) 
Parker. 

St. Delphine, or DAUPHINE, Nov. 27, 
Sept. l&gt;r&gt;, Xov. ItJ, Dec. 17. -fi:;^). 
O.S.F. Delphine do Glandeve de 
Puy-Michel, afterwards de Sabran. 
Countess of Ariano, called "The Poor 
Countess." Wife of St. Elzear, daughter 
of Guillaume de Signe. The Signes 
were a branch of the powerful family 
of the Viscounts of Marseilles, who 
descended from the Kings of Burgundy. 
Guillaume married Delphine de Barras, 
a great heiress, who had immense estates 
in Provence. They lived in the castle 
of Puy-Michel, which belonged to her, 
and there St. Delphine was born about 
J283. She was the sole heiress to her 
mother s vast possessions. She had a 
sister named Alasacie, who although a 
nun of the Convent of St. Catherine de 
Sorps, generally lived with her. Del- 
phine s parents died while she was very 
young, and she was styled Dame de Puy- 
Michel, a title which she bore all her life. 
She is thought to have been educated by 
her aunt Mabel de Signe, abbess of St. 
Catherine de Sorps, and there to have 
acquired the habit of reading the Bible, 
and also the art of working that extra 
ordinary fine needlework in which gold, 
silver, and silk were artistically blended, 
and that unceasing industry which dis 
tinguished her to her latest days. She 
wished to spend her life in the convent 
which had been her school, but 
Charles II., king of Naples and Sicily 
(12851809), as count of Provence, 
was guardian of every heiress in that 
province, and insisted on marrying her to 
his cousin and hers, Elzear, or Aulzias de 
Sabran. He was about two years younger 
than Delphine. His father Hermengaud 
had received from Charles I., with the 
title of Count of Ariano, lands in the 
kingdom of Naples, confiscated from 
families who had sided with the house 
of Arragon against that of Anjou. 
Elzear s mother, Laudune d Aube, had 
presented him to God from his birth, 
and, like the sainted Queen BLANCHE, 
she said she would rather see her first 



born child die at once than that he 
would live to offend his Creator. 

Delphine s family were much alarmed 
by her fixed objection to marriage, as 
they feared to offend the king. So, 
through her Confessor, they persuaded 
her that it was her first duty to relieve 
their anxiety by consenting to the 
alliance, and also to trust that if it 
was God s will for her to serve Him 
in virginity, He wourd open a way 
for her to do so. Accordingly, she 
was married at the age of fifteen, in 
12 .S, in the chapel of her castle of Puy- 
Michel, her husband being thirteen. 
His mother was dead ; his father, Her 
mengaud de Sabran, had married again, 
and had a large family. He was at the 
court of Naples, where he held the 
lucrative post afterwards conferred on 
St. Elzear, of Master Justiciar of the 
Abruzzi. The young couple lived with 
Elzear s grandparents at the castle of 
Ansois, or Ansouis. Delphine was a 
beautiful girl, very tall, with good 
features and a singularly sweet voice. 
She had received, for the times, a superior 
education, and possessed an extremely 
amiable disposition, and uncommon pene 
tration and discretion. It was no wonder 
that she soon obtained a great ascendency 
over a youth of thirteen. They entirely 
sympathized with each other in piety 
and zeal for all good works. Delphine 
was blessed with extraordinary insight 
into the character and thoughts of others. 
Elzear was favoured with ecstasies and 
heavenly visions. Very soon after her 
marriage Delphine was very ill. Elzt-ar 
was in great distress. She told him 
she would certainly die unless he 
promised to respect her vow of virginity ; 
that she would much rather die than 
break it ; and was praying to God to 
take her rather than let her be untrue to 
her vow made to Him. Elzear would 
not at that time make a vow to bind him 
for life, but assured her that her wishes 
should always be law to him. On this 
she immediately recovered. During the 
five and twenty years of their union they 
lived like a brother and sister in the 
greatest affection and confidence. They 
practised from the first the same asceticism 
as if each were in a monastery, but it 



ST. DELPHIM; 



228 



was not nntil about sixteen years later, 
when Delphino was thirty-two and her 
hu&lt;hand nearly thirty, that they bound 
tin -nisei ves by a vow of perpetual vir 
ginity. While they lived with their 
grandparents the old lady was, accord 
ing to the English translation of 
I .inet, "extremely passionate to see her 
self a great-grandmother ; she sent for 
skilful Phisitians, and caused th -in to 
appoint recipes that quickly Delphino 
might be with child. From time to 
time needs must she swallow most bitter 
potions and be let bloud, which she 
did with great courage, as well to obey 
this ladie as to couer the secrecie of her 
vow." 

The old Count Elzear, the grand 
father, suspected that they spent great 
part of the night in prayer, and began 
singing psalms much too early in the 
morning, so he made some of their 
attendants sleep in their room to restrain 
their devotions, and report to him what 
j Kissed. Delphine soon found it prudent 
to keep her windows and shutters shut 
until a late hour in the morning, that 
she might be supposed to be sound 
asleep, although she and Elzear were, in 
fact, reading the Bible together, and 
going through their morning prayers or 
conversing untrammelled by observers. 
At this time there were glass windows 
and wooden shutters in the rooms of 
rich people, and the walls were hung with 
tapestry. One evening, when she was 
washing her husband s head and comb 
ing out his long hair, he asked her to 
make haste and finish her labours, as ho 
felt the approach of the Spirit of God, 
and he spent the whole of that night in 
ecstasy, his soul transported into heaven. 
Towards morning, when she took a lamp 
to look at him, to be sure that he was 
alive, she saw his face transfigured, 
perfectly beautiful, and surrounded \\it\i 
heavenly light such as is represented in 
pictures of saints and angels. The 
espionage .f their retainers was irksome, 
and the rollicking life of a mime: 
household under the rule of a not very 
scrupulous old man was not at all to the 
taste of the two young saints, and alter 
enduring this unc onu enial utnu.spln n 
three or four years, they rein-&gt;V .d in 



Delphine s own house, Puy-Michel, and 
there they kept a strict, though bene 
volent rule, above all things setting their 
faces against swearing and profane or 
immodest language, which must have 
been a very common sin at that time, 
as all pious people found it necessary to 
protest so much against it. Elzear 
exacted of every member of his house 
hold attendance at morning prayer, and 
at one Mass at least in each day, and 
greatly insisted on purity of conduct. 
The count and countess watched over 
their dependents as if they were their 
own children, and so their house was a 
school, their discipline a kind of aposto- 
late. Elzear s cousin Raymond, bishop 
of Digne, copied their rule and estab 
lished it in his episcopal palace, and 
Sister Alasacie, who lived with Delphine, 
declared, when giving her evidence at 
the canonization of Elzear, that the life 
at Pny-Michol was more strict and 
religious than the life in the convent 
of Sorps. Their charity and prudence 
were especially shown, and were favoured 
by miracles during the famines of 13n3 
and 1305. Hermengaud, Elzear s father, 
died in 1310, and Elzear now became 
count of Ariano, and, leaving Delphine 
in charge of all their property in Pro 
vence, had to go to settle his affairs in 
Italy. He soon became a great favourite 
with King Robert the Wise (1309-1343), 
who at once conferred on him the order 
of knighthood. During the vigil that 
preceded the ceremony, Elzear prayed 
l&lt;u- grace, and firmly resolved to lead, 
amid the luxuries and pleasures of the 
court, the same holy life ho had led at 
Puy-Michel. On this occasion he had 
one of those ecstasies by which he was 
confirmed and encouraged in his virtuous 
resolutions. During his absence Del 
phino spent part of her time at his fortified 
castle of Ausouis. The parish church is 
still standing close to the old castle to 
which it was evidently joined in former 
times. In 1314, as St. Elzear could not 

. &lt; Italy, Delphine joined him there. 

&gt;hu was now over thirty, but was still 

very beautiful a beauty enhanced by 

her charming manner and her edifying 

ion. 

\\heii she arrived at Ariano, she was 



224 



ST. DELPHINE 



shocked to find her husband Pressed as 
gaily as the most worldly of his com 
panions, and feared that the life of court 
and camp had rubbed the bloom off his 
piety and sullied the purity of his soul. 
He saw the sadness of her look, and, 
divining its cause, soon revealed to her 
that beneath his embroidered silk coat 
and velvet mantle he wore the rough 
woollen shirt of his former days, and 
under that his cilicium. In their new 
abode they practised the same holiness 
and patience, charity to the poor, and 
earnest efforts for the moral and spiritual 
welfare of those under their authority, 
that had characterized their life at Puy- 
Michel. 

Delphine soon found that, being one 
of the great ladies of the court, she had 
to wear the magnificent dress that her 
station demanded ; but under her gay 
attire she wore a cilicium. She was 
always very generous to friends and. 
attendants, and, finding two ladies of the 
court who were too poor to dress like 
their companions, she gave her green 
gown to one and her violet gown to the 
other, and thus enabled them to appear 
at court as became their rank. 

St. Elzear was much impressed with 
the duty of doing justice to all the 
creditors of his family, and discharging 
the different obligations his father had 
left him ; and he thought that when all 
these affairs were settled, God would 
release him from his earthly life. 

As Master Justiciary of the Abruzzi, 
he might have enriched himself to any 
extent. Presents were a recognised form 
of profit to those holding high offices ; 
but the line between a present and a 
bribe is so faint that nn avaricious man 
cannot see it, and Elzear was too up 
right and too scrupulously conscientious 
to see it either. One day the nun 
Alasacie, who was in constant attend 
ance on her sister Delphine, and always 
had access to her room, found St. Elzear 
there, saying his prayers aloud. She 
heard him say, " Lord God, Thou wilt 
have to repay me in Thy paradise a 
hundred ounces of gold and two pieces of 
scarlet." Alasacie asked him afterwards 
what he meant, and he told her it was a 
present he had refused for love of God. 



Many touching instances are related 
of the impartiality and kindness with 
which he attended to the petitions of the 
poorest, as well as of the good influence 
the saintly couple exercised over their 
equals and superiors at court, including 
the Duke of Calabria, heir to the throne. 

During these years Elzear travelled 
about a good deal, sometimes on warlike, 
but oftener on pacific errands for King 
Robert, and, like all the nobles who had 
estates in both Italy and France, he had 
to go from one country to the other to 
attend to his own property. Accord 
ingly, in 1316, he and Delphine asked 
and obtained from the king a year s 
leave of absence, and went to visit each 
of their estates Ansoui s, Cucurron, 
Vaugine, Robians, Cabrieres, la Motte 
d Aigues, which belonged to the Sabrans, 
and Delphine s estates of Glandeve, 
1 Hospitalet, Puy-Michel, etc. In the 
following year they returned to their 
places at the court of Naples. It seems 
to have been during this visit to Provence 
that they were enrolled as members of 
the Third Order of St. Francis, and j 
bound themselves by a solemn vow of 
celibacy. 

It must have been about 1321 that 
Elzear, finding all his debts paid and 
his worldly embarrassments set to rights, 
told his wife he was sure God would 
soon call him away. In i:&gt;23 the King 
and Queen of Sicily were at Avignon, 
where the Pope also resided at this date, 
and where the Count and Countess of 
Ariano joined them immediately after 
they had attended the last moments of 
( atheriue of Habsburg, duchess of 
( alabria. As the duchess left no chil 
dren, King Robert was impatient to have 
his son married again without delay, and 
Elzear was chosen to go to Paris and 
ask, in the name of the Duke of Calabria, 
the hand of the Princess Mary of Valois. 
He was to marry her as proxy, and bring 
her away. Ho could not refuse this 
service to his friend and sovereign, but 
before leaving Delphine at Avignon he 
said to her, " If it please God that I 
return from this mission, we will with 
draw from temporal cares and business, 
and live in our own house at Ansouis, 
and there, far from the tumult and 



ST. DKU IIIM-: 



225 



struggle of the world, devote ourselves 
\rlusively to spiritual things." Delphinc 
\vus overjoyed. She looked forward to 
their spending some years together in 
the manner she had always considered 
the best and happiest. She stayed 
contented with Queen Sancha, and her 
husliand went to Paris. 

One day he was in the Place Saint- 
Jaeques just as a priest was coming out 
of the church, carrying the sacrament to 
a sick person. All the people who hap 
pened to be there fell on their knee- 
their custom was, at the passing of the 
Holy Sacrament. Elzear alone remained 
standing. The Bishop of Paris, having 
heard so much of the piety of the Nea 
politan ambassador, wondered much 
when this act of irreverence was repeated 
to him, and requested the Count of 
Ariano to explain his motive. Elzear 
said, " The wafer which the priest carried 
was not consecrated, and I should have 
been guilty of idolatry if I had wor 
shipped it as the Body of our Lord." 
The bishop, more surprised than ever, 
sent for the priest, who confessed with 
t -ars that such was the fact, and ex 
plained that the person who had sent 
for the Holy Sacrament was, to his cer 
tain knowledge, unworthy to receive it, 
but that, intimidated by his followers, 
and not daring to refuse the demand of 
so powerful a personage, he had, in his 
perplexity, thought to avoid sacrilege by 
the ruse which the Count of Ariauo had 
detected. 

The embassy had been in Paris about 
three weeks, and preparations were be 
ing made to celebrate the royal marriage 
with due pomp and splendour, when the 
pr...\y bridegroom was seized with fever 
and died in a few days, at the King of 
Sicily s hotel, Sept. 27, 1;J2:J. He said 
on his death-bed that if he had any good 
in him he owed it to the prayers and the 
example of his wife. At the hour of his 
death, Delphine, who was praying for 
him in her oratory at Aviguou, had a 
vision of the lugubrious procession of his 
-iits, elnthed in mourning, issuing 
from the gates of Paris, and taking the 
r&gt;a d to Avignon. She flew to the king 
and queen, to see if they could give her 
any tidings ; but they had heard nothing, 



and tried to calm her. After a few 
days, however, the king received the sad 
news of the death of his ambassador, and 
soon afterwards the friends and servant* 
who had accompanied the count to Paris 
arrived in mourning, just as Delphine 
had seen them in her vision. Tim 
widow was inconsolable. She left the 
court, and went to live at Cabrieres, 
near Ivobiaus, her husband s birth-place, 
and near Ansouis, where their first homo 
had been. 

About a year after his death his body 
was brought, according to his directions, 
to bo buried in the Franciscan church at 
Apt. She went there to meet it, and, at 
the same time, did homage in that church 
for her lands, between the hands of the 
seneschal Scaletta. About three years 
after this, the Franciscans and all the 
clergy and people of Apt petitioned the 
Pope, John XXII., who was living at 
Avignon, to enrol the name of Elzear 
amongst the saints. The Pope showed 
himself willing, but was too much 
troubled by his struggles with the anti- 
pope, the Germans, and his other ene 
mies to take at once the necessary steps ; 
but Delphine, who had been assured in a 
vision that her husband was in paradise, 
worshipped him as a saint without wait 
ing for his canonization, which was 
accomplished by his godson, Urban V. 

Kl/e.ar left Ansouis and Ariano to 
his brother William, and to Delphino 
ho restored all the estates she had 
brought him as dowry Puy-Michcl, 
Saint Etioune, Ilospitalct, etc. ; ho left 
her the castles of Kobians and Cabrieres 
absolutely, and for her life she was to 
have the castle and lands of Madalon, 
near Naples ; ho also left her quantities 
of plate, jewels, money, silk and fur 
robes, flocks and herds, and furniture 
of various sorts. She soon resolved to 
sell all these appendages of luxury, 
henceforth useless to her; but it took 
some time to realize so much and such 
various property. Some of her relations 
were willing to buy the family estates 
from her, and some undertook to assist 
her in getting rid of her superfluities 
and making over the money to the 
di Hi -rent classes of poor on whom she 
uished to bestow it; but this could not 



220 



ST. DELPHINE 



bo done in a short time. She had to 
obtain the king s permission to alienate 
the lands which she held of the crown, 
with their conditions of military service 
and other feudal dues ; this permission 
was always difficult to procure, and 
Dclphine, by the advice of her friends, 
to avail herself of the queen s friend 
ship, set out for Naples about 1326. 
The court, in its mourning for the 
Duke of Calabria, she found more to her 
taste than in the brilliant days of yore. 
The queen and Delphino, with their 
sorrows and their piety, loved to retire 
from the crowd of friends and courtiers 
and converse alone together. At this 
time are placed many of the miracles 
of healing recorded of Delphinc. She 
went to visit one of the queen s ladies 
who was very ill, merely to express 
sympathy and exhort her to patience ; 
holding her hands affectionately while 
she spoke, the patient instantly felt 
better, and two days afterwards her 
malady was completely and permanently 
cured. Another of the court ladies 
suffered excruciating pains in her eyes 
and ears, and had tried all sorts of 
remedies, the king himself had in vain 
prescribed for her. Delphine went to 
see her, and, in her affectionate sym 
pathy, took the sufferer s head tenderly 
between her hands, in order to kiss her, 
and thereby cured her at once and for 
ever. Delphine s own health began to 
break down, and she often suffered a 
great deal. When her friends condoled 
with her, she said that if people only 
knew the real value of suffering, they 
would send to buy it at the market as 
a thing of great price. She lived a 
great deal at Casasana, now Quisisana, 
a charming place built by King Robert, 
between Naples and Castellamare, and 
here she began to practise the austere 
life which she continued to lead to the 
end of her days. She solemnly re 
nounced all her property, distributing 
some to her companions and servants. 
She seems to have dreaded pride as a 
great enemy of the soul, for she more 
than once said she feared she would lose 
her soul unless people counted her a 
fool, so she was as greedy of contempt 
as others are of respect and approbation. 



When she went begging, she was glad 
if people who knew her laughed at her 
and pushed her rudely from the path. 
She left Italy about lo. M-, returned to 
her own country, and resided chiefly at 
Apt, where her husband was buried. 
She sold Cabrieres to her brother-in-law, 
reserving, however, a hermitage there, 
where she could occasionally enjoy com 
plete seclusion ; but even this she would 
owe only to his charity, and not to any 
legal right. She plunged into absolute 
poverty, begging from door to door, 
sometimes churlishly dismissed, some 
times insolently treated by other beggars. 
Once they said grudgingly one to an 
other, alluding to the dropsy which dis 
figured her shape, " They will give this 
woman two loaves, because she has such 
a big stomach, while a poor starveling 
like me will get but one ! " Then the 
saint would rejoice that neither beauty, 
rank, nor wealth any longer distinguished 
her from the lowest. Now that all 
earthly comforts and interests were put 
away from her, amid the pain of her 
disease and the privations of her con 
dition, in long vigils she communed with 
God, and learnt what it was to love Him 
alone. It was probably now that she 
received her extraordinary gift of read 
ing the thoughts of others. She often 
answered questions which persons were 
afraid to ask her, and calmed scruples 
they had not dared to avow. She often 
said that if reading and tears do not 
suffice to dissipate scruples and anxieties, 
one ought to betake one s self to manual 
labour, in which occupation she con 
sidered souls least liable to offend God. 
After the death of King Robert, Queen 
Saucha sent for her again to Naples, 
and during the three or four years that 
remained of Sancha slife the two widows 
spent much of their time in the Fran 
ciscan convent of the Holy Cross. The 
queen died there, and Delphine imme 
diately returned to Provence, and settled 
at Apt, where her house is still shown. 

She lived for nearly a year at Ca 
brieres in a cell as an absolute recluse, 
but her advisers persuaded her to give 
up this entire solitude and return to 
Apt, where she edified many by her 
wisdom and spirituality. In her youth 



ST. DK.MKTKIA 



227 



jhe used to instruct her servants and 
russuls, and to work conversions among 
lie friends whom she received or met 
n society, but now, in her poor little 
louse at Apt, her life was an apostolate ; 
jhe seemed to have a special mission to 
wing near to God all persons who came 
to JUT; she only spoko out of the 
ibnn dunce of her heart, and every word 
jecmed to go to the heart of the listener. 
A.11 sorts and conditions of men caino 
K&gt; consult her about their spiritual 
lifliculties. 

A priest who wished his niece to 
&gt;ecoino a nun, spoko on the subject to 
Delphine, who, knowing by her wonder- 
id intuition that the girl had no voca- 
ion to the religious life, opposed the 
jlan, and told the priest he would en- 
langcr the soul of his niece if he exerted 
lis authority to drive her into the 
sloister. Throughout her life, one of 
Dclphine s favourite works of charity 
(Fas making up quarrels, of which many 
listanccs are given in her biography. 
She died at Apt, Nov. 20, 13G&lt;&gt;, and was 
it once venerated as a saint. Little 
noro than two years afterwards steps 
were taken towards her canonization, 
&gt;y Urban V., her husband s godson, but 
xjforo all the formalities were com 
pleted this Pope died, and it was not 
mtil 1 11 o that her body was solemnly 
taken up from the tomb, enclosed in 
i shrine ornamented with silver, and 
placed beside that of St. Elzear. 

The memory of these saints still lives 
in Provence, and their fete is kept with 
great devotion. Their cousin, 13. ItosE- 
n n, is also remembered at Apt to this 
.luv. 

St. hi/ear s name is in the JR.3/., 
Sept. L 7. Ulossed Delphino is men 
tion.. 1 with him on the same day, and 

.) Nov. i&gt;7, in the Mart. Seraphici 

dinis, and they are also named on 
: in the Mart. Romano Sera- 

Btcum, A.Il.M. His Life is in the 
Bollandi, and much of the in 
formation regarding li. Delphino is 
deriv, -d from it. She is generally called 
Saint," but the title hitherto accorded 
by Authority of the Pope is "Blessed." 
Then- Live* "n. I Singular Virtues are 
Cribed by Father EtfeniU JJim-t, S.J., 



and translated into English by T. H. , 
lo . JS. A very readable book is the 
Marquise de Forbin d Oppcdo s Delphine 
ct leg Saints de Province. She quotes, 
among other authorities, an old Pro- 
fiogil Life of Delphine preserved in 
the Bibliothequo Natiouale, and a his 
tory of the process of her canonization. 

St. Demergothia, or DENEGOTHIA, 
Oct. I, M. at Tomis, in Lower Mcesia. 
AA.SS. 

St. Demetria ( 1), Juno 21, V. M. 
4- . 3(52. Daughter of St. Flavianus and 
ST. DAFUOSA. Sister of ST. BIBIANA. Con 
demned with them to bo scourged to 
death under Julian the Apostate, but 
died at the stake before the executioner 
touched her. According to Butler, after 
the death of St. Dafrosa, St. Demetria 
and her sister were imprisoned in their 
house, and attempts were made to per 
vert them from the faith. They were 
then brought before the governor, who 
had condemned their parents. Demetria 
confessed her faith, and fell dead before 
the tribunal. (See BIBIANA.) AA.SS. 
Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary 
Art. 

St. Demetria (2;, June ;{, M. in 
Africa with more than a hundred others. 
AAJ38. 

St. Demetria (X), or DEMETUIAB. 
")th century. Daughter of Olybrius, of 
the illustrious house of the Anicii. Ho 
and his brother Probinus wore consuls 
in . ) ( .V&gt;, being appointed to that dignity 
by Theodosius the Groat, at the request 
of the liomau Senate. 

They were distinguished by every good 
quality. They were the first instance of 
two brothers not of the imperial family 
being consuls together. Olybrius died 
prematurely, and was mourned by all 
Home, but he was thus spared the grief 
and humiliation of seeing Komo sacked by 
the barbarians. His widow Juliana, his 
mother Proba, and his daughter Demetria 
left Homo and went to Carthago ( whero 
they had property), to avoid the invasion 
of the (loths. They saw the burning of 
II oino from their ship as they left tho 
shores of Italy. Count Heraclian seized 
a great deal of their African property. 

~~; I emotria, in tho midst of a largo 
and luxurious house, surrounded by 



ST. DEMUTH 



eunuchs and maids devote^ to her ser 
vice, aftected a life of poverty, fasting, 
wearing coarse clothing, and sleeping 
on the ground. These austerities were 
known only to her maids. About 41 :&gt; 
a suitable marriage was arranged for her, 
but she threw herself, weeping, at the 
feet of her grandmother Proba, and her 
mother Juliana, and besought them to 
let her remain unmarried and consecrate 
herself to her Lord. They joyfully con 
sented, and she took the veil from the 
IHshop of Carthage, at the same time 
bestowing her dowry on the poor. This 
event made a great sensation at the time. 
Proba and Juliana wrote to announce 
it to St. Augustine, whose preaching 
at Carthage had contributed much to 
confirm Demetria in her religious dis 
positions. He wrote them a letter of 
congratulation. They also wrote to St. 
Jerome, beseeching him to send her 
some instructions for her religious life, 
which he did in a long letter, exhorting 
her, among other things, to work with 
her hands daily, and to study the Holy 
Scriptures, and not trouble herself about 
the difficult questions which were be 
ginning to be raised within the Church. 
Pelagius, afterwards a celebrated heretic, 
also wrote her a long letter of encourage 
ment. SS. Augustine and Alypius after 
wards wrote to Juliana to bid her caution 
Demetria against Pelagius. Proba, Juli 
ana, and Demetria returned to Rome, 
where the latter was living in the time 
of St. Leo, who was Pope 440-401. 

W. W. Storey, Eoba di Eoma, ii. :;i, 
tells that at the third milestone on the 
Via Latina were unearthed the founda 
tions of the early Christian basilica 
dedicated in the name of St. Stephen, 
and built by St. Demetria at the instance 
of Pope St. Leo the Great. It had been 
razed to the ground, but columns of rare 
and beautiful marble of different sorts, 
capitals, bases, and other architectural 
ornaments, broken and scattered, testified 
to the richness of the original building. 

Jerome s Epistles, torn. i. ch. cxxx. p. 
iMl .i, edition Vallais, contains curious facts 
concerning the siege and sack of Rome. 

Tillemont, Mem. EccL, xiii. iJUn- ;:;. ). 
Lobeau, -/&gt; "*. Empire, v. ( .2. Butler, 
Life of St. Augustine, Aug. 28. 



St. Demuth, DIEMUTHA. 

St. Denecutia, or BKNKI TTIA, May 
14, M. in Africa. AA.SS. 

St. Denegothia, or DEMEHGOTHIA, 
Oct. 1. AA.SS. 

St. Denise, DKNYSA, or DKNVSK, 

DloNYSIA. 

St. Denyw, or ])\\ VN\VI:\, Welsh for 
THEXEW. Forbes, Scottish Kalendart. 

St. Deodata, July ill, M. probably 
in the time of Diocletian. Wife of St. 
Fautius. While they were still heathens, 
they were given to charity and good 
works. They were long childless, to 
their great regret. One night Fautius 
dreamed that he and Deodata were stand 
ing before the judgment-seat of God, 
condemned to eternal damnation; but 
Jesus Christ, showing His wounds to His 
Father, entreated that they might be 
forgiven. Ho awoke in a fright, and 
told the dream to Deodata, who then 
devoted herself more than ever to good 
works. Not long afterwards they were 
rejoiced by the birth of a son, whom 
they named Fautinus. The day he was 
twelve years old, he was hunting a stag, 
which led him by chance (or by provi 
dence) into a cave where lived a Chris 
tian hermit. Fautinus and his servant, 
Leontius, were instructed in the Christian 
faith and baptized by the hermit. Fau 
tinus returned to his parents, and told 
them what had happened. They re 
membered the dream, and were converted, 
and very soon called to the crown of 
martyrdom. Their son was arrested 
with them, but liberated on account of 
his youth. Fautius and Deodata were 
beheaded. Their Acts are in a history 
of the saints of Sicily, where they are 
said to have been martyred at Syracuse, 
but it is not certain whether Syracuse 
or Tauria in Calabria was the scene of 
their death. 

Pinius, in AA.SS. Boll, July :)1 ; and 
Ferrarius, Dec. l. J. Ferrarius says 
Fantius and Fantinus, instead of Fautius 
and Fautinus. 

St. Deotila, July 14. 8th century. 
Second Abbess of Blangy. Daughter of 
Sigfrid, count of Pontivy, and of ST. 
BEUTHA of Blangy. Sister of ST. GEH- 
TKIIH: ( 7 ) of Blangy. Mas Latrie. AA.SS. 

St. Deppa, June 20, M. Relics with 



BB. DIANA, CECILIA. AND AM ATA 



220 



kho.se of his or her companions, names 
unknown, brought from Kome and placed 
in the Jesuits Church at Tournay, Kill , 
bulled by Guerin, STE. DEPPE, perhaps 
the same as ST. DELPH, or DlBPn. 
1.1. ., Prsetcr. 

St. Derbhfraich, DAHERCA (: , i. 
St. Derbhiledh, DARBILE. 
St. Dercain, a name of Si. K AIM : ii \, 
r CHINKKACHA. O Hanlon, i., in Life 

llTA. 

St. Derchairthinn. An Irish saint 
f royal descent, and of the family of 
Jt. Maedhof (&gt;th or 7th century ), pro- 
haUy of Oughterard, co. Kildare. Gam- 
uisick, in Smith and Wace. 

St. Derfroechea, DARERCA (3). 

St. Derinella. An Irish nun, sup 
posed to have lived in the o th century, 
and to be the same as ST. TUKI.I.A. 
Lanigan, from Colgan. 

St. Derivla, DARBILE. 

St. Derlugdacha, DARLUGDACHA. 

St. Derlughach, DABLUODAOHA. 

St. Dermor, July 0. An Irish 
saint, daughter of Maine, and, perhaps, 
sister of the virgins ETHNE and CUMMAN. 

St. Derphuta, March 2o, M. with 
AI.KXANDKA i :; ). R.M. 

St. Derthrea, or DOROTHEA, ITA. 
Col^an, //". chap. iii. Donegal and other 
Mfirtyrologies. 

St. Derwa, "the Martyr," gives 
iio to a place " Mertherderwa," now 
Menadarva, in the parish of Camborne, 
Cornwall. Uev. C. W. Boase, in Smith 
and Waco s Dictionary. 

St. Detta, TETTA (2). 

St. Deuris. (See ACRABONIA and 

A &gt; KAMA.) 

St. Devota, Jan. 27 (DEIVOTA, Di- 
VOTA ; in some parts of France, DIVUE), 
M. during the persecution under Diocle 
tian. 1 atnm s:ii nt of Monaco. 

Devota, a young girl in Corsica, took 
refuge in the household of Eutychius, a 
senator, that she might servo God in 
safety under his protection. Soon after- 
Wiirds ]i:irl)jirus, the u;&lt;&gt;v&lt; rnor, or a bar 
barian chief. c;inie with a fleet to Corsica. 
and In -hi a ^reat feast and sacrificed. 
When ho heard that Kutyrhius had :i 
^ irl in his house who worshipped some 
crucified .lew iiinl despised the gods of 
tin Romans, he demanded that she 



should be given up and compelled to 
sacrifice. Eutychius refused this de 
mand, saying that no power on earth 
would compel her so -much as to bend 
her head to a heathen god. 

" Give her up to me : she shall soon 
obey," said the tyrant. 

" I wonld not give her up for all your 
gold," replied Eutychius. 

The enraged persecutor, not daring 
to attack Eutychius openly, had him 
poisoned, and then he seized Devota, 
who, on her renewed refusal to sacrifice, 
was tied by the hands and feet, and 
dragged over sharp stones ; she mean 
while sang a psalm of praise, and prayed 
that Eutychius might be numbered 
among the elect, because he had died 
for his kindness to her. 

When she was stretched on the equu- 
leus, a voice from heaven was heard 
encouraging her, and her spirit was seen 
to ascend thither in the form of a dove. 
The Christians took her body by night, 
and placed it in a ship to take to Africa ; 
but the wind was contrary, their lives 
were endangered by a fearful tempest, 
and they were compelled to take the 
opposite course. They were then guid 1 
by a dove to the place now called 
Monaco, where they buried the martyr 
in the church of St. George. AAJSS., 
and an old Italian book of Corsican and 
Sardinian saints. 

St. Devote, Sept. 2&lt;&gt;. A pious 
woman in the province of Gascony. 
Either the same as DEVOTA of Corsica, 
or DODA of Auxitania, which is Gas- 
cony. Saussaye, Mart. GnlL Gynrctrum. 

AA.SX., I );!} ,,n #8i. 

St. Dewin, DWVNWEN. 

St. Dextra, DEXTRUS, or DEXTER, 
May 7, M. in Africa. 

BB. Diana (l) (+ r- M), Cecilia 
( -f 12.MM, and Amata, June In, YY. 
of the Order of St. Dominic. Much of 
them commemorated on other days in 
other calendars, but Papcbroeh, AA.tiS., 
mentions them all three together, and 
gives their Life by Malvenda, &lt; -ollectcd 
from various authors. 15. hiana was 
{ under of the convent of St. ALMICS, in 
Montr, at r.ologna. She was an only 
child of the family of Andalo, one 
of the richest and most important in 



230 



15. DIANA 



Bolognn. During the life of $t. Dominic, 
a monastery of his order was built at 
Bologna, and dedicated in the name of 
St. Nicholas. As the number of the 
friar-preachers increased, the monastery 
became too small for them, and Diana, 
then a young girl, persuaded her father 
to give them, without payment, a vine 
yard of his, which lay beside their narrow 
piece of ground, so that they might en 
large their house. She used to go often 
to hear them preach, and soon she took 
a vow of virginity in the presence of 
St. Dominic and of several pious matrons 
of Bologna, 1210. This vow was kept 
secret for a time, as she knew that her 
parents would not approve of it. She 
confided to St. Dominic her wish to 
found a convent of his order for women. 
He approved, and ordered the enlarge 
ment of the monastery of St. Nicholas to 
be suspended, and all the resources of the 
community to be devoted to constructing 
the convent of St. Agnes in Monte. 

Meantime Diana tried to prepare her 
self in her father s house for monastic 
life by secret austerities and increased 
devotion. This life, however, neither 
satisfied her heart nor tended towards 
fulfilling the promise she had made to 
St. Dominic that she would build a 
convent ; so one day she went with a 
great many of her friends for recreation, 
as she said to the Benedictine convent 
of Ronzano, and, going into the dor 
mitory, she asked the nuns to give her 
the dress of their order. They had already 
prepared everything for her, and now 
received her gladly as one of themselves. 
So she dismissed her companions, telling 
them she intended to remain in the 
convent. 

When her parents heard what had 
happened, they came in great indigna 
tion, with many of their friends and 
relations, entered the convent with fury 
and violence, and carried Diana off by 
force ; her rib was broken in the scuffle, 
and she was so much exhausted that she 
appeared to be dead when first they 
brought her home. Everybody was more 
or less hurt, and the whole place was 
in an uproar, as great as if Bologna had 
been invaded by a hostile army. She 
was confined to bed for a long time, and 



was not allowed to see any one, except 
in the presence of her parents. 

About this time (1221; St. Dominic, 
who had been absent, returned to Bo 
logna, and soon lay on his death-bed. 
Diana grieved that she could not go and 
visit him on account of her own illness, 
and of the strict watch her parents kept 
over her ; but he wrote her several 
letters, exhorting her to persevere in the 
religious life she had undertaken. Soon 
after his death Diana recovered, and 
took the first opportunity of returning 
to the convent of Ronzano. Her father 
saw that all his efforts to reconcile her 
to a secular life were vain, and molested 
her no more, lost he should fight against 
God. The convent of St. Agnes in 
Monte was finished in 1223, and Diana 
with four other Dominican nuns moved 
thither, and in the same year they were 
joined by two illustrious matrons of 
Forrara. They then sent to the convent 
of St. Sixtus at Rome, with permission 
of the Pope, Honorius III., to beg that 
some of the sisters might be sent to 
teach them all the rules and holy cus 
toms enjoined by St. Dominic. Among 
those who came, the chief was B. Cecilia, 
who had received the religious veil at 
seventeen from St. Dominic himself, and 
was the first nun who ever received it 
from him. It is supposed that B. Amata 
was one of those nuns of St. Sixtus who 
came to establish the new order at St. 
Agnese, in Bologna. No particulars are 
recorded of her, but she is commemorated 
with the other two. 

Diana died 1 2o&lt;5, being probably about 
thirty-five years of age. Cecilia lived 
in great sanctity to the age of eighty- 
nine, and died 1290. 

A letter from B. Giordano, the second 
general of the Order of St. Dominic, to 
Diana, " Priora del venerabile monastero 
di St. Agnese in Bologna," was published 
at Rome in 18(&gt;0. AA.SS., from the 
Life of Diana, by Malvenda. (See also 
Histories of the Dominicans by Pio 
and Fernando del Castillo, who give 
her Life with slight variations in the 
order of the events.) 

B. Diana (2), or JKAXNK. + !."&gt;&lt; &lt;&gt;. 
First Prioress of Sobrives, aunt of ST. 
ROSSELINB. 



ST. !&gt;K;.\A 



281 



St. Diateria, Oct. 2, V. Time on- 
certain. Worshipped at Milan. Some 
times called Martyr. A virgin who, 
tarrying the oil of good works with her 
ever-lighted lamp, went out to meet the 
Bridegroom. AA.SS. 

St. Dibamona, June 4. Sister of 
Si. BISTAMONA, and daughter of ST. 
Sni in A. All martyred in Egypt. -1.1 ss 

St. Dicessa, May i:&gt;, M. in Africa. 
Yi;is Lutrie. Guerin. 

St. Dida ( 1 ), June 3, V. Mart, of 
Tallaght. 

St. Dida (2), Jan. 25. 8th century. 
Abbess of St. Peter s at Lyons. Men 
tioned in Life of St. Bonitus (Bishop of 
Auvorgne), Jan. 15, and placed by Saus- 
Hiiyo in his supplement to the Gallican 
Martyrology. One of her nuns was 
cured of paralysis by touching the body 
of St. Bonitus, or Bon. Mas Latrie. 

St. Didara, Juno 23. Honoured in 
flu- Abyssinian Church, with her sons, 
Bisoe and Nor. The former was a 
soldier, and suffered martyrdom by 
bring tied to a wild bull. Didara and 
Nor are also believed to have been 
martyred. AA.SS. 

St. Diemode, March 20. Nun, and 
aft rr wards recluse in Suabia. Guerin. 

St. Diemutha, or DEMDTH (Humi 
lity ), March 17. Kecluso. Lived several 
years hidden in a cave near the mouas- 
t rv (jf St. Gall. Died holy. Bucolinus, 
March 17. Burgener, Helvetia, Sancta. 
Possibly a duplicate of DIKMODE. 

St. Dieppe, or DELPH. Commemo- 
ratrd at the village and church of Lan- 
dulph, Cornwall. (See DKITA.) Parker. 

SS. Digna ( 1 ), or CKLEBTINA, and 
Merita, or KMKUITA, Sept. 22, VV. MM. 
:!rd century. Two Christian sisters 
living in Koine in the reign of Valerian 
. -2&lt;&gt;nj. Gaius, the judge, com- 
mandrd them to sacrifice, and, on their 
refusal, ordered them to bo beaten. 
Wln-n tlie executioner raised his arm to 
strikr them, it became immovable, and 
hr screamed in terror. Accused of 
m;i/ie arts, the sisters cured him, that 
lu- and tin- judp: iiii.^ht believe in the 
pown- nf tlirir (Ji.il. As they persisted 
in their resolution not t&lt;&gt; saerilico to the 
heathen j^ods. th&lt; y \vrn- threatened with 
torture and death. Tln-y replied that 



they had always wished to suffer and 
die for their Lord. They died on the 
rack, and were buried in the cemetery 
of Commodilla, on the Ostian Koad. 
The authenticity of their Acts is very 
doubtful. Their relics are kept in the 
church of St. Marcellus. It.M. Suysken, 
in AAJ3S. 

St. Digna C2 ), or DIGNUS, May 15, 
M. AA.SS. 

St. Digna (3), Aug. 12, M. Servant 
of ST. AFKA of Augsburg. R.M. 

St. Digna (4, 5), or PIGBA, Oct. 1, 
and another ST. DIGNA, MM. at Tomis, 
in Lower Moesia, under Diocletian. 
One of these was the wife of a martyr 
named Nicander. AA.SS. 

St. Digna (0), Aug. 11, V. At 
Todi, in the reign of Diocletian and 
Maximian. A very holy woman, not a 
martyr. EM. AA.SS. 

St. Digna (7), Juno HV.M. +853. 
A young nun in the convent of Tabaua, 
near Cordova, under the venerable 
ELIZABETH, wife of the martyr Jeremiah, 
its founder. Digna was remarkable for 
her humility, and begged her sistor-uuiiH 
to call her INDIGNA, unworthy, instead of 
DIGNA. 

Mahomet, successor of Abderrahman, 
renewed the persecution begun by his 
father, and ordered the expulsion of 
Christians from his dominions; but as 
his ministers represented to him that he 
was depopulating his kingdom, he limited 
the persecution to those who should 
openly oppose the religion of Mahomet. 
When Digna heard of the martyrdom of 
SS. Anastasius and Felix, encouraged by 
a vision of ST. AGATHA, she left her 
convent without asking leave or even 
informing the abbess of her intention, 
and went to Cordova, where she arrived 
just as the bodies of the martyrs wore 
put upon stakes. This sight increased 
her zeal, and she went to the judge who 
had condemned them, and told him that 
if they were guilty, she was no less so, 
as she held the same opinions, and asked 
no better fate than to die for them. 
The judge replied that she might easily 
be gratified, and, without trial or more 
ado, she was beheaded. ST. BKMLDA, a 
very old woman living in the world, i.e. 
not a nun, was martyred next day, and 



232 



ST. DIGNA-MBBITA 



all the bodies, after Lunging % few days 
on stakes or gibbets, were burnt, and the 
ashos thrown into the river. H.M. l&gt;aillet. 
St. Digna- Merita ( l ), June 1 7, M. 
2nd century, or end of 3rd or beginning 
of 4th. Died under torture at Brescia, 
in the reign of Adrian (117-138) or else 
in that of Diocletian (284-305). Her 
two little sons were thrown out of a 
window, and thus shared with her the 
palm of martyrdom. They are said, in 
a book of the saints of Brescia, to have 
been of the noble family of Lavelungn. 
Papebroch considers this so unlikely 
that the assertion throws doubt on the 
whole story. AA.SS. 

St. Dignamerita (2), or DEGNAME- 
itiTA. Daughter of King Isofo, wonder 
fully beautiful and learned. At twelve 
years old she began to wear the Gospel 
in her bosom and in her mind. Hearing 
much of St. Matthew in Salerno and in 
Rome, she prayed continually to him 
and to God. Her father wanted to make 
a good marriage for her, promising to 
give her half his kingdom ; but she 
answered 

" Father, I am married to a rich and 
powerful Husband, beautiful beyond all 
others. His riches never waste away ; 
His wisdom is never mistaken ; His 
knowledge is infinite ; and He is King 
of all kings and Lord of all lords." 

The king said, " Who is this that you 
have married without consulting me ? " 

She said, "If you do not renounce 
your false gods, you do not deserve to 
see my Husband." 

He was very angry, beat her, and, 
taking her by the hair, dragged her all 
about the palace. 

After having imprisoned her for some 
time, Isofo tried to make her sacrifice to 
the idols ; but she ordered the devil who 
inhabited the idol to appear, which ho 
did, breaking the imago with a great 
crash. After undergoing many tortures, 
she was beheaded, and buried by the 
Christians. Her father was destroyed 
by lire from heaven. Legyrnflai-in dellr 
Si nit i- Vergini. 

St. Dig-nefortis, WILOKFOKTIS. 
St. Dimna, DAMHHADB, 
Dina. The name of ST. APOLLONIA 
before her baptism. Italian Leyrml. 



St. Dinach, Nov. 2&lt;, M. Nun in 
Persia. Guerin. 

Dinalia. Migne s Jerome has DINALIA 
for MINALIA. 

St. Dioclia, April 7, M. at Pompeio- 
polis, in Cilicia. Mother of Calliopus, 
martyr. She died embracing his dead 
body. AA.SS., Printer. 

St. Diodie (Dieu-donnee?). Daughter 
of a lord and lady who were long child 
less. They made a pilgrimage to St. 
Anne d Auray, always praying for a 
child. Their prayer was answered, but 
her mother died in giving her birth. 
Her stepmother, who had a daughter of 
her own by a former marriage, tried 
various means, with the aid of a sorceress, 
to get rid of Diodie, but could not suc 
ceed in injuring the young saint. At 
last she put her into the hollow trunk 
of an old oak, and left her to starve. 
Diodie s little dog followed her, and 
scratched a subterranean passage for 
himself from the tree to the kitchen, and 
brought her food every day. The step 
mother meantime tried to make the 
father believe that Diodie had decamped 
for some wicked purpose, but he suc 
ceeded in finding her by means of the 
dog. He asked her what vengeance she 
would take on her stepmother and the 
sorceress. She said she forgave them in 
the name of God, but he had them both 
burnt alive. Soon afterwards Diodie 
became very ill, and her mother came, 
took her in her arms, and carried her 
straight to heaven. The details of the 
legend are very like those of many well- 
kiiown fairy stories. Luzel, Legendcs 
Chreticnnes dc la Basse Bretaync. Another 
legond of a saint in the same collection 
is that of ST. TOUINE, or TWINA. 

Diomeda, Aug. 1 2, M. at Augsburg. 
(See NIMONIA.) AA.SS. 

St. Diona, March 14, M. at Nico- 
mcdia, with others. AA.SS. 

St. Dionina, April ir&gt;, M. Daughter 
of VI:I;OM&lt; A (3), and martyred with her 
and several others at Antioch. 

St. Dionysia (1), June 28. -f 2&lt;&gt;2. 
M. with ST. POTAMIOSNA, at Alexandria. 
AA.88. 

St. Dionysia (2), Dec. 12 and Feb. 
22, M. 24&lt;&gt;, at Alexandria, with SS. 
AMM&lt;&gt;\ \I;IA, MI:I;&lt;TI;IA, and others. 



ss. DIONTS1 \ AM) DATIVA 



288 



Dionysiu was the mother of many 
rhildivii, whom she tenderly loved, but 
she loved the Lord better." * With MI:I:- 
rruiA and ANTHA, she was put to death 
without torture. (See AMMOXAU \. i /, . M.. 
Dec. 12. AA.SS., Feb. 22. Crake, Hist. 
&lt;&gt;f tl,, Church. He quotes the letter of 
&gt;t Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, in 
which he describes the seventh perse 
cution. 

St. Dionysia (:t), May i:&gt;, M. with 
others at Porto Romano. G. H. in 
AA.SS. 

St. Dionysia (4), or Denise, May 
1."), V. M. :5rd century, about 240, ac 
cording to Neale, who places the martyr 
dom at Troas instead of Lampsacus. 
SS. Dionysia, Peter, Andrew, and Paul 
are commonly called the Martyrs of 
Lampsacus. 

During the persecution, under Decius, 
a young Christian, named Peter, was 
arrested as a Christian and brought 
before Optimus, the proconsul, at Lam- 
lacus, a town on the Hellespont, not far 
from the Island of Chio, where St. Isidore 
had lately glorified God by his martyr 
dom. ( )n his persistent refusal to sacri 
fice to Venus, Peter was beheaded. 
Immediately afterwards, as Optimus was 
leaving Lampsacus to go to Troas, a 
town of Phrygia, three other Christians 
were brought to him amid the cries and 
Lootings of the mob. They were Andrew, 
Paul, and Nicomachus. He asked them 
who they were, and of what religion. 
Nicomachus eagerly proclaimed himself 
a Christian, and was at once put on the 
rack, but soon found himself unable to 
endure the tortures to which ho was 
subjected, and cried out, "I never was a 
Christian. I will sacrifice to the gods." 
The proconsul ordered him to be taken 
down instantly, but the apostate had no 
sooner burnt incense before the idol than 
IK; was sei/ed by the devil, and threw 
himself on the ground in convulsions, 
liming at the mouth and biting his 
tongue, and in a few minutes he died. 

A j^irl of sixteen, called Dionysia, 
seeing this frightful occurrence, ox- 
oUimed, " Alas, wretch I to save thy.-elt 1 
an hour s suffering thou art gone to 
rnal tonne: 

&lt;&gt;]&gt;ti;ims inquired wh tlier she was a 



Christian, and told her that the great 
goddesses Venus and Diana Lad tak- i. 
Nicomachus away lest the Christians 
should taunt him with his renunciation 
of their superstitions, and had given him 
rest as soon as he had sacrificed to them, 
adding that unless she followed his ex 
ample, by sacrificing at onco to the gods, 
she should be degraded and burnt alive. 
Dionysia answered, " My God is greater 
than you, and can defend me." Andrew 
and Paul were then put in prison, and 
Dionysia was given to two young men, 
who took her to their lodgings and tried 
to ill use her. She wearied them with 
her resistance, until an angel came to 
her rescue, and appeared to her tor 
mentors in the form of a young man of 
gigantic stature, whose presence lighted 
up the whole house. Next day Andrew 
and Paul were tied by the foot and 
dragged out of the city to be stoned. 
Diouysia escaped from her guards, and 
followed the two martyrs, begging to be 
stoned with them that she might share 
their eternal glory. Her words being 
repeated to Optimus, he ordered her to 
be taken to another place and beheaded. 

.Haillet says their Acts are authentic, 
and taken from the records of the public 
courts of law of the place of their 
martyrdom. AA.SS. BoHandi. Butler, 
May I.-. Ii uinart. Neale. 

SS. Dionysia ("&gt;) and DATIVA, Dec. 
&lt;&gt;. MM. 4- 4S4. Two ladies of rank, 
sisters, who, in the persecution of the 
African Catholic Christians, by the 
Vandals, under Hunnericus, the Arian 
king, suffered grievous torments, and 
were numbered among the confessors. 

St. Dionysia had a boy, St. Majoricus, 
who trembled at the torments inflicted 
and threatened, but was so encoura 
by the words and looks of his mother, 
that he became more courageous than 
the rest, and died praying. His mother 
buried him in her own house, and prayed 
at his sepulchre daily. St. /Umilius, a 
physieijin, cousin of 88, I ativa and 
iMonysia, also SS. Leontia, Victoria 
( 1! ), Tertiosa, and others wore tortured 
at the same time. When Dionysia was 
LToin^ to be scourged, she said she was 
willing to suffer all their tortures, but 
d that they would leave her one 



B. PTOR CHILD 



garment. They not only refused this, 
but set her on the highest spot in the 
market-place, to be seen by everybody, 
and there they boat her till the blood 
ran in streams on the ground. 

In Callot s Images she is represented 
with her son, who is being scourged by a 
soldier. It.M. Baillet. Ruinart. 

B. Diorchild, Oct. 2(), V. Bene 
dictine near Mea-ux. The Bollandists 
and Stadler mention her on the authority 
of Arturus only. 

St. Dirce, M., praised by St. Clement. 
Mas Latrie. 

St. Disca, Aug. 17,M. with Mammes, 
at Alexandria. AA.SS. 

St. Disciola, May 13, V. + about 
.~&gt;82. A nun of the convent of the Holy 
Cross at Poitiers, under ST. AGNES, its 
first abbess, and commemorated with her. 
Disciola was niece of B. Salvius, bishop 
of Albi in Languedoc, who died Sept. 10, 
585. She is mentioned in the Lives of 
ST. RADEGUND, founder, and ST. AGNES, 
abbess of Ste. Croix. AA.SS. Mas 
Latrie, March 10. 

St. Dista, or MISA, June 28, M. -f 
202, with ST. POTAMKENA, at Alexandria. 
AAJ38. 

St. Distaffs Day, Jan. 7. So called 
because the Christmas holidays end on 
Twelfth day (Jan. 0), and on the follow 
ing day women return to their distaffs, 
or daily occupations. "Distaff" stands 
for a woman, as in old times women 
span from morning till night. Dr. 
Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 

St. Divota, DEVOTA. 

St. Divue, honoured at Monaco. 
DEVOTA, of Corsica. 

St. Doha, NYMPHADOBA. 

St. Dobrotiva, companion of ST. 
URSULA. Mas Latrie. Migne. 

St. Doda (1), April 24, V. Abbess. 
Niece of ST. BOVA, and brought up by 
her in the convent of St. Peter at 
Rheims. She was promised, by her 
parents, in marriage to a young noble 
man of Austrasia, who, hearing that 
she wished to become a nun, resolved to 
carry her off by force from the convent, 
but when he attempted to touch her, his 
arm and hand withered, and he was only 
restored to health by the prayers of 
Doda on repenting of his contemplated 



sacrilege. Baillet says that before he 
arrived at Rheims, as he was riding 
from Metz with the intention of carrying 
off the holy nun, he was thrown from 
his horse and so seriously injured that 
ho died soon afterwards. AA.SS. Bail- 
let. Butler. 

St. Doda (2), ancestor of Charle 
magne. Wife of St. Arnulf of Metz, a 
great patron saint of the French. She 
was a woman of noble birth, and great 
wealth and piety. She was married in 
009 to Arnulf, who held positions of the 
highest importance and trust under 
Theodebert II. and Cloth aire. Arnulf 
and Doda had two sons, Clodulfus (one 
of the many SS. Cloud), bishop of Metz, 
and Ansigisilus, who married ST. BEG&lt;;A, 
daughter of Pepin of Landen. Soon 
after the birth of her second son, Doda 
became a nun at Treves. Arnulf wished 
to join St. Romaric and became a monk, 
but the king and the people could not 
dispense with his services. About 012 
the bishopric of Metz was forced upon 
him, although he was a layman, but he 
was still retained as the king s chief 
adviser and minister. Ho died a monk 
about 040. Many years after their 
separation, Arnulf and Doda had to meet 
to settle some of their affairs. She was 
so afraid that her presence might revive 
his mundane affections that she shaved 
her head ; her precaution was successful, 
he was horrified at the sight of her. 

At July 18, Bosch the Bollandist gives 
two lives of St. Arnulf, the earliest of 
which is by a contemporary author. He 
also gives an inscription in which she 
is called "St. Doda Herezogin von 
Schbbeina St. Arnulphen Gemachel." 
But he does not seem to attach much 
credit to this last. Doda is com 
memorated with her son St. Cloud, in 
(rreven and Usuard. Clarus, Die Hcilitjr 
Mitthihle. Butler. Baillet. Smith and 
Wace. 

St. Doda (*) DOLE, or DOLLA, Sept. 
28, V. Perhaps M. Sister of ST. 
QUITEHIA. The village of Dole in the 
ancient diocese of Aucb, where her relics 
are venerated, is called after her. 
Stilting, in AA.SS. 

St. Doga, TOGA, or TOSA, June :i. 
M. at Rome with many others. AA.SS. 



ST. DOMINICA 



285 



St. Dole, D i..\ (3). 

St. Dolendis, ROLKXM-. 

St. Dolgar, Oct. 2(5. 6th century. 
Daughter of St. Aneurinus, or Gilclas. 
Sister of St. Gwinnoc and six other 
stints, and aunt of St. Garci. Her 
grandfather Caw came from Strathclydo 
(Arecluta) in Scotland, and settled in the 
Isle of Anglesea. His son, St. Aneurinus, 
nr Gildas, was a soldier and poet in 
A Vales, and sang of the battle of Caltraeth, 
which some say was in 472, some ,")!(), or 
the end of the (5th century. Rev. Canon 
Hole, in Smith and Wace. 

St. Dolla, DODA (3). 

St. Domaine, or DOMAXIE, DOMANA. 

B. Domana, DOMAIXE, or DOMANIE, 
May 2&lt;&gt;. 7th century. Wife of St. Gere- 
mar, or Germer, a distinguished personage 
ut the court of Dagobert, and afterwards 
of ( lovis II. (husband of ST. BATHILDE). 
(reremar resigned his honours and pro 
perty, c. &lt;4H, to his son Amalbert, and 
became a monk, and subsequently abbot 
at Fentallum, near Ilouen. Amalbert 
was killed a few years afterwards, and 
i J rmiar again had to dispose of his 
paternal estate of Vardos, on the Epte. 
He built there the monastery of Flavi- 
acum, afterwards of St. Germer do Flay, 
which lie ruled until his death, Sept. 24, 
. J.I. NX. Smith and Wace. Martin. 

St. Domania, DOMANA. 

Domenica, DOMINICA. 

Domicilla, May 7. In Canisius 
&lt; alcndar, V. M. Perhaps the same as 
DOM IT 1 1. LA (2), who is worshipped on 
May 7. 

St. Domina, April 5. AA.SS. 

St. Dominata, Sept. 14. Martyred 
with her three sons, Senator, Viator, and 
CassiodoruK, at Argentanum, in Calabria 
Citcriori, now St. Marco in Lamis, in 
Calabria. AA.SS. Bollandi. Ferrarius, 
Nova Topoijrupltia in Martyrologio Ro- 



St. Dominica (l), July ;, V. M. 

4- about :;&lt;i_ . Patron of Tropea, in 
( ahibria. 

li presented carried by angels to her 
Rcpulcbro at Tropea, as ST. CATHKKIM: 
to Mount Sinai (Cahii-r. S- fiitlchrfs). 

II ! story is from un old breviary in 
the church ut Tropea, in Calabria. Ii&lt; r 
parents, Dorothea ami A rsi-nia, appear 



to liave been Greeks of Asia Minor. 
They were long childless, and at last 
had this daughter, born on a Sunday, 
wherefore they called her Cyriaca, which 
is Dominica in Latin. 

When the persecution arose under 
Maximian, the parents were constant in 
the faith, and their daughter no less so. 
She was condemned, at Nicomedia, to 
death by wild beasts, fire, and other 
evils, from all of which she escaped 
unhurt. She was then sentenced to be 
beheaded. She asked for a short time 
for prayer, and kneeled down, and died 
peacefully while praying. Her parents 
were exiled to the banks of the Euphrates, 
and her body was miraculously trans 
ported to Tropea. 

Various other names are attributed to 
her, but, .Tanning seems to think, without 
good ground: SICULA, PALMA, MAUTHA, 
I JATTONA, NICETKIA, and EUPHEMIA. R.N. 
AA.SS. 

St. Dominica (2), DOMNEOA, or DOM- 
NINA, Jan. H, Jan. 10. -f- 474. Born 
and baptized at Carthago, where she led, 
for many years, a holy and solitary life, 
and had the gift of prophecy. She is 
perhaps the same as DOMXINA, mother of 
St. George the Cozobite. AA.SS. Neale, 
Holy Eastern Clturch. Menology of the 
Emperor BaxiJ. 

St. Dominica (. 0, May i:i, V. End 
&lt; f "&gt;th century. Sister of St. Agrippinus, 
bishop of Como ; emulated his good works 
and holy life, and died soon after him. 
She is sometimes supposed to have been 
a nun and companion of SS. LIBEUATA 
and FAUSTINA in the convent of St. John 
the Baptist, afterwards of St. Margaret, at 
Como ; but Papebroch thinks she attained 
to holiness in a secular life and dress. 
AAJ38. 

St. Dominica (4), or DHUSA, Feb. r&gt;, 
V. M. Sister of St. Indract, or Hidra- 
clms. End of 7th and beginning of 8th 
century. 

These two saints were the children of 
an Irish king. They left Ireland as 
pilgrims with nine companions, intending 
first to visit Glastonbury. They landed 
at a port in England, called Tamer worth, 
Of Troiimnton, near Plymouth. There 
they made a long stay, dug a well, and 
built an oratory. Soon after their arrival, 






B. DOMINICA TOKTCKS 



St. Indract planted liis staff in the ground ; 
it immediately put forth roofs and leaves, 
and in course of time became a great oak 
tree. Ho found in a little pool just 
enough fish for them all to eat, and every 
day the same number were ready there, 
neither more nor less, until one of his 
companions took one of the fish without 
his leave, after which the supply di 
minished by one fish daily. Indract 
understood it as a sign that God wished 
them no longer to remain there, so taking 
leave of his sister, he hastened with his 
nine companions to Rome, to visit the 
churches and relics of the apostles. On 
their return they were joined by Do 
minica, and all set out for Glastonbury. 
On the way thither they stayed some 
days with St. Ina, or Yne, king of the 
West Saxons, who held his court at 
Pederton, while some of his attendants 
lodged in the neighbouring villages. 
One of these, Hone, a son of iniquity, 
supposing the pilgrims scrips to be full 
of money, lay in wait for them with his 
accomplices when they got to Shapwith, 
near Glastonbury, and murdered them all 
in the night, throwing their bodies into 
a deep pit, where he hoped they would 
never be found. That night the king 
was not able to sleep ; he looked out of 
the window, and saw a pillar of fire 
in the sky over the place where the 
bodies were hidden. As he saw the 
same thing on the two following nights, 
ho had the place searched, and the pil 
grims buried with great honour at 
Glastonbury. The murderers were 
seized by demons, and tore themselves 
to pieces. The fiery pillar was also 
seen by a woman who had served idols 
from her childhood, and whom no preach 
ing had been able to convert. She did 
not dare to approach the bodies of the 
holy men, but went and confessed her 
sins to a priest, and was baptized. 
Various miracles of healing are recorded 
of the relics of these martyrs. 

Henschenius, in AA.SS., from a Life 
taken from Malmesbury and Capgrave, 
and the Salisbury Martyn&gt;logf. St. 
Dominica was invoked in the Kxeter 
Litany in the 1 1 th century. 

B. Dominica (6) Torres. O.S.D. 
Of Chntilla, a village eight leagues from 



Valencia. She began her austerities at 
seven. She went with two companions 
to the hermitage of St. Mary Magdalene, 
at Massamagrel, took the habit of the 
Beatas of the order of B. John Micone, 
and was prioress. She appears to have 
had fits in consequence of her austerities, 
for, after many details of her wounds, 
vermin, starvation, etc., it is related that 
the devil tempted her as he did St. 
Anthony, and once knocked her off a 
bench where she was sitting, and threw 
her out of the window ; she was not 
killed, but permanently injured. Once 
he locked her up in her cell, deprived 
her of the use of her hands and feet, tied 
her tongue, and hid her under a mat. 
Thus she lay for two days, until the 
nuns, tired of looking for her and call 
ing her, got in at the window, and rescued 
her. She received the Holy Sacrament 
every day for forty years. She was 
charitable, and begged from the marquis 
the release of many prisoners, which he 
always granted, so great was his respect 
for her sanctity. She was so modest that 
she could not endure the word " flesh " 
to be mentioned even in a sermon. She 
obtained sundry favours from God by her 
prayers. In her last illness it was re 
vealed to her that she should die at a 
certain hour on the festival of a saint of 
her order ; which happened on B. Louis 
Bertrand s day. She was honoured as a 
saint by the people, who thronged to the 
bier, and carried off pieces of her garland 
as sacred relics. Pio. 

B. Dominica (&lt;&gt;; Ongata, Sept. lo. 
1622. Martyred in Japan on the same 
day and place as LUCY FUEITAS. 

St. Domitiana, April 28, M. with 
St. Cyrillus and others. Their names 
were found in a very ancient martyrology 
in Lombardic characters at Monte Cas- 
sino. AA.SS. 

St. Domitilla ( 1 ). FLAVIA DOMITILLA 
the Elder was the daughter of the 
Emperor Titus Vespasian (79-81), and 
niece of Titus Flavins Domitian, his 
brother and successor (81- ( .M)). Shr 
married her first cousin, Titus Flavius 
Clemens, son of Titus Flavius Sabinus, 
brother of Vespasian. 

The ruins of the villa of Plavia 
Doinitilla are still to l&gt;e seen at Home a 



ST. DO.MITILLA 



tlio farm of Tor Narancia, on the Via 
Ardoatina. The relics of Flavia Domi- 
tilla and those of the other suint bearing 
the same name are said to have been 
preserved for many years in this villa, 
below which are some of the earliest 
known catacombs in the neighbourhood 
&gt;i Kome, known as the catacombs of 
Xorcus and Achilles, and sometimes as 
the catacombs of Domitilla. 

Domitilla allowed her Christian 
brethren to be buried within the pre 
cincts of her estate. The immense 
subterranean cemetery which now ex 
tends far around the original nucleus is 
not entirely a work of the first century. 
At the beginning there were only small 
isolated groups of crypts at wide inter 
vals, in which eminent Christians had 
been allowed to secure their burial-plaoes 
" ex indulgentia Flaviac Domitillte." It 
was, perhaps, in the third century that 
cross galleries wore excavated to connect 
these original deeply venerated culiculsc, 
so as to make an uninterrupted network 
of catacombs from one end of the prsedium 
to the other. 

Clemens and Domitilla had two sons. 
These children were adopted by the 
Emperor, who changed their names to 
Vespasian and Domitian, and appointed 
the famous Quintilian to be their tutor. 
They did not, however, succeed, and 
their history is unknown. 

In the year ! ."&gt; Clemens was consul, 
having as his colleague the Emperor 
Domitian. As soon, however, as his 
consulate was over, Domitiau had him 
put to death on a charge of atheism, 
which probably meant Christianity, this 
being then regarded as a sect of the 
hated Jewish religion. Clemens, though 
in reality a Christian martyr, would not 
declare himself as a Christian, and so 
IDS!, the honour of a place in the Martyro- 
logies, unless ho is the St. Clemens 
(Nov. 7 or _ I i, history unknown, spoken 
of in the Mart. &lt;&gt;f St. Jerome. Tin: 
accusation of sloth was also brought 
against him by tin: Emperor, because he 
ivt usi-d tn as-i&gt;t him in his persecution 
of the ( hi i.-tians. 

Within a few days of her husband s 
death, the Emperor wished Domitilla to 
marry again. On her refusal she 



accused of impiety, and banished to the 
island of Pandataria, now Isola di Santa 
Maria, in the gulf of Pozzuoli, near 
Gaeta. Domitian was murdered a few 
months afterwards by Stephen, steward 
of Clemens and Domitilla, probably in 
revenge for his cruelty to Step] 
master and mistress. 

He was succeeded by Norva, who re 
called the banished Christians, and with 
them Domitilla, who returned to Rome. 

The little that is known with any 
certainty of either of the two SS. Flavia 
Domitilla is from the heathen writers 
Dion and Suetonius, and from Eusebius 
and St. Jerome. 

Baillet, Vie des Saints. Tillemont, 
Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. Hare, 
Walks in Rome. Milner, History of the 
CJinrch. Lightfoot, Clement. 

St. Domitilla (2), May 7, V. -f c.ioo. 

St. Flavia Domitilla the Younger was 
great-niece of the Emperor Domitian, 
and daughter of ST. PLAUTILLA, sister 
of Clemens, the husband of FLAVIA 
DOMITILLA (1). 

At her death Plautilla left her 
daughter under the guardianship of 
Auspicius, with two eunuchs named 
Nereus and Achilles as servants and 
companions. They converted Auspieius 
to Christianity, and devoted themselves 
to the study of science and learning. 
Domitilla was betrothed by her uncle, 
the Emperor, to Aurelian, son of tbo 
consul, but was not yet old enough to 
be married. She was naturally very 
beautiful, took every means to mako 
herself more so, and was fond of dress 
and jewels. 

NiTeiis and Achilles were sorry to seo 
In T turning her thoughts to worldly 
pleasures, and advised her to give up 
Aurolian, who was despicable on account 
of his sloth, and consecrate herself to 
i hrist by a vow of virginity. She 
immediately sent for St. Clement, the 
Pope, and took the veil from his hands. 
Aurelian, hearing of it, came in great 
haste and anxiety to Domitilla s palace, 
and sent the porter to tell her ho wished 
to speak to her. But she replied that 
lie illicit k o and speak to the devil, for 
she would not seo him. Aurelian com 
plained to the Emperor, who, having 



238 



ST. DOMNA 



reasoned in vain with Domitilla, banished 
her to the island of Poutia, a hundred 
miles from Kome, not far from the island 
of Faudataria, whither her aunt was 
banished. She was accompanied in her 
exile by Auspicius, Nereus, Achilles, 
and several of her servants. She had a 
cell built, in which she spent her time in 
prayer. 

Aurelian, finding that she did not 
change her mind, and thinking that 
Achilles and Nereus influenced her, 
obtained the Emperor s permission to do 
as he chose with them. He offered them 
large bribes to persuade Domitilla to 
marry him, and on their refusal he had 
them tortured and beheaded at Terracina, 
thirty miles from the island. At Domi- 
tilla s request their bodies were taken to 
Home, and buried near that of ST. 
PETRONILLA. 

Three other Christians, Maro, Victor, 
and Eutirio, hearing of Domitilla s loss, 
went to console her and share her exile, 
but Aurelian put these also to death. 
He then took Domitilla to his brother s 
house in Terracina, and induced his two 
friends, Servilian and Supplicius, to send 
THEODORA and EUPHROSYNE, who were 
betrothed to them, and were friends of 
Domitilla, to try and persuade her to be 
married on the same day with them. 
But Domitilla by her prayers restored 
sight to Herod, the brother of Theodora, 
and cured a child of dumbness at the 
request of Euphrosyne, which so im 
pressed these young women that they 
became Christians and took the veil. 
Their affianced husbands were also con 
verted to Christianity. 

Aurelian remained unconverted, and 
insisted on the marriage, and invited 
many people to dance in honour of the 
occasion. When he began to dance, 
however, he could not stop, but danced 
for two whole days and nights, and was 
at last thrown down and torn by the 
devil, and so died. All the people who 
laid followed him from liomo were con 
verted, but his brother accused Domitilla 
of having killed Aurelian by magic, and 
obtained from Trajan, who had meantime 
succeeded to the imperial throne, an 
order to put to death all who would not 
adore the gods. He then had Supplicius 



and Servilian beheaded, and locking up 
Domitilla, Theodora, and Kuphrosyno 
in the house at Terraciua, he set fire to 
the building. St. Ciesar, coming to bury 
them, found them ; kneeling, dead, but 
their bodies and clothes uninjured. 
Leggendario dellc Santi Very hi!. 

THEODORA and EUPHRONYNE are men 
tioned in the Roman Marfyroloyy as 
companions of the martyrdom of 
Domitilla. 

Tillemont says that among the martyrs 
in the persecution of Domitian none are 
more illustrious than his nearest relations 
Clement his cousin-german and the two 
Domitillas, wife and niece of Clement. 
Some persons, much impressed with the 
multiplication of the saints and martyrs, 
have supposed that there was only one 
Saint Flavia Domitilla, and that the 
discrepancies in the account of her 
relationship to the Emperor, and the 
probable mistakes made in copying from 
the manuscripts the name of the island 
to which she was banished, which is 
given by some writers as Pontia and by 
others as Pandataria, led to the supposi 
tion that there were two. 

There is little doubt that legends 
have been made concerning real person 
ages whose histories were unknown, 
and it is probable enough that, on the 
discovery of reliable information con 
cerning the hero or heroine of a story, 
the discrepancies between the two ac 
counts would give rise to the assertion 
that the saint of history was one and the 
saint of legend another person of the 
same name. It is, however, not the 
least unlikely that there were two Domi 
tillas, aunt and niece. The elder is 
well known to history, the younger is 
the subject of the legend. ST. PAULA, on 
her journey from Home to Palestine 
about the year . 185, visited the cell of 
St. Domitilla in Pontia (now Panza). 

St. Domna (1), or DANNE, Dec. 28. 
Galerius Maximinianus (JJ05-311) at 
the beginning of his reign favoured the 
Christians. He allowed them to keep 
up their churches and monasteries, and 
employed many of them in his house 
hold. Among the gentlemen who held 
office in his palace at Nicomedia were 
Authimins (afterwards bishop), Mar- 



ST. 1)&lt;)M.\A 



286 



donins, Mygdonius, and Imles. Indes 
luid a sister, Domna, who was brought 
up in the palace, and was destined to be 
the priestess of twelve gods ; but when 
she was about fourteen, she became 
disgusted with the ceremonies observed 
in their worship, and, hearing of the 
simplicity and innocence of the Christian 
religion, she desired to know more about 
it. She happened to meet with the 
Book of the Acts of the Apostles, which 
impressed her very much, and soon after 
wards she procured some of the Epistles 
of St. Paul. She studied these, and 
became more averse to the religion in 
which she had been brought up, and 
more anxious for instruction in Christian 
doctrine. 

In those days of tranquillity Domna 
easily made acquaintance with a Chris 
tian lady, who procured for her and 
Indes the teaching of one of the deacons. 
After a time he took them to St. Cyril, 
bishop of Nicomedia, to be baptized. 
From this time she fasted frequently, 
and gave to the poor nearly everything 
that was allowed her for her own wants 
and pleasures. 

When the governor of the palace 
discovered this, ho was very angry, 
locked her up, and tried to starve her ; 
but she was fed by some unknown help. 
When the officer who provided for 
1 1 Ki nbers of the court perceived this, he 
tried to tempt her with dainties, and 
ordered her to have money and every 
comfort and luxury. She feared some 
snare of the evil one, and pretended to 
be mad, so she was sent to the Christians 
to be cured. Anthimius arranged that 
she should bo given into the charge of 
the holy abbess AGAPE (4). For this 
service ho was degraded from his office 
in the palace to be a camel-driver, and 
was eventually beheaded. 

Gulerius soon missed the names of 
Indes and Domna from among the 
persons otlicinting at a great ceremony, 
and his chamberlains told him that 
iJomna was mad, and Indes had gone 
with her to attend upon her in a place 
\vhTr. she r.piiM l.c taken care of. 
Galcrius had by this time resolved on 
the destruction of the Christians, and, 
knowing that they would all flock to the 



churches on Christmas Day, he ord n 1 
every church to bo set fire to. Many 
martyrs met their death in the flames 
14,000, according to the tradition of the 
Greek Church. 

Galerius now thought he had 
minated the Christian religion, and gave 
games to celebrate the feat. A sacrifice 
to Ceres preceded the sports of the 
theatre. While the victims were being 
prepared, a soldier named Zeno called 
out, in the midst of a solemn silence, 
" What folly, Emperor, to sacrifice to 
sticks and stones ! Look at the sky ! 
Do you think your gods made it ? Do 
you think the Creator of the world cares 
for the blood of beasts and the smell of 
incense ? No ; rather for pure hearts 
and upright souls." 

" Smite him on the mouth ! " cried the 
president of the games. 

" Break his jaws ! " roared some of the 
people. 

" Off with his head ! " cried others. 
And so this witness against tho brutal 
sport of the arena was suppressed, and 
tho games went on. 

About this time Anthimius, in his 
obscure station as an exile from court, 
had succeeded St. Cyril as bishop, and 
now thought it well to write to some of 
his flock who were in prison, to en- 
courago them to hold fast their faith. 
Ho sent tho letter by a deacon, who 
succeeded in delivering it to Indes. It 
was addressed to him and to SS. Mar- 
donius and Mygdonius, who had been in 
prison a considerable time. Indos was 
seized by tho guards, and tho letter was 
found upon him. When Galorius heard 
of it, the name of Indes reminded him 
of Domna. Ho ordered all tho monas 
teries to be searched for her, and in tho 
execution of this order tho guards were 
guilty of tho greatest atrocities. (Sec 
Tin:.. i -i 1 1 LA.) While this search was 
proceeding, Mardouius was burnt, Myg 
donius was buried alive, and Indes was 
thrown into tho sea with a stone tied 
round his nock. Tho Christians of the 
town told it to those in tho mountains, 
among whom was Domna. When she 
h -:ml of her brother s death, she rejoiced 
that In- hud witnessed a good confession. 
At night she loft tho cavo where she 



Jlo 



ST. DOMNA 



was hiding, and went into tlfc town of 
Nicomcdia. She first inquired of the 
Christians where Agape was, and heard 
that she and Thcophila had been burnt 
in one of the churches on Christmas 
Day. In the morning she went down to 
the beach, and there she saw some 
fishermen. As she was disguised in 
man s clothes, they called to her to help 
them with their nets. She did so, and 
went out with them in their boat. When 
they hauled up their nets, they found 
them wonderfully heavy, and soon ascer 
tained that this was because there were 
several corpses of men in them. Lest 
this occurrence should get them into 
trouble, they resolved to go off to some 
distant port instead of landing again at 
Nieomedia, and they invited her to come 
with them ; but she begged them to put 
her ashore before they went away. They 
therefore gave her a quantity of fish and 
some bread and left her. She examined 
the faces of the dead men, and found 
that one of them was Indes. She saw 
another ship approaching, and made 
signs. The master thought she wanted 
to sell her fish, and asked her the price. 
She said, " Nothing." He did not under 
stand, and got angry, and, being a 
sailor, he had to swear, although he was 
a Christian. So he said, "By Christ! 
tell me what you will take for your fish." 
When she knew he was a Christian, she 
explained her difficulty, and he brought 
some linen and perfumes out of his ship, 
and he and his men helped her to bury 
the martyrs near the wall of the town. 
Then he would have taken her away in 
his ship, but she would not leave the 
grave, and said she would not have long 
to wait, and she would be buried beside 
her brother and his fellow-martyrs. 
When Galerius heard where she was, he 
sent and had her beheaded on the spot. 

According to some accounts, Indes 
was not the brother of Domna, but a 
eunuch devoted to her service. 

In the Roman Martyrclogy, Dec. 28, 
are commemorated " The holy martyrs 
Indes the Eunuch, Domna, AGAPE, and 
TiiKOi iiiLA, virgins, and their com 
panions." Daru, Leu Chretiens d 1 Cour 
de Diocletirn. Menology of Basil. 

St. Domna (2), or ALUMNA. One of 



the martyrs of Lyons, who died in prison. 

(Sec Bl.ANDINA.) 

St. Domna ( "&gt;), DOMNINA of Syria. 

St. Domna (4), March IL&gt;. V. M. 
Same as DONATA. Put to death with 
St. Peter, the chamberlain of Diocletian. 

Domne, DOMNA. 

Domneca, DOM INK A. 

St. Domniata, Sept. 14. M. in 
Calabria. Mas Latrie. 

Domnica, DOM INK -A. 

St. Domnicella, Nov. 1 1. M. Mas 
Latrie. 

St. Dpmnina 0), April 14. M. at 
Terano, in Umbria, under Nero. R.M. 
She is honoured with St. Valentine, 
ST. AGAPE (2), and other MM. in the 
. &gt;rd century. Jacobilli places the mar 
tyrdom of Domnina in the time of Totila, 
(ith century. 

St. Domnina (2;, Aug. 2, ?. + c. 285. 
Called DON VINA in the R.M., but DOMNINA 
by Butler and some others. 

She was martyred at yEgea, a sea-port 
in Cilicia, forty-six miles south-east of 
Tarsus, with SS. Claudius, Asterius, 
Neon, THP:ONILLA, and a child whose 
name we do not know, early in the reign 
of Diocletian and Maxim ian. 

The great persecution of Diocletian 
had not begun, that Emperor being as 
yet indulgent towards the Christians, 
and averse to tyranny and cruelty ; but 
some of the laws against the Christians 
had never been repealed, and here and 
there were brought into play to gratify 
personal grudges, or the cupidity of 
governors, relations, or neighbours of 
the Christians. This was the case when 
the three brothers, Claudius, Asterius, 
and Neon were accused by their step 
mother, who only wanted the magistrates 
to authorize her to take possession of 
their estate. At the same time were 
arrested two pious women, Domnina and 
Theonilla, and a child, who may have 
been the child of Domnina or the grand 
child of Theonilla. Just then, Lysias, 
the proconsul of Cilicia, arrived at ^Egea, 
and ordered that all the Christians should 
come up for judgment. The magistrates 
made strict inquiry for Christians, and 
apprehended six, of whom three were 
young men and brothers, two were 
women, and one a small child. The 



ST. DON ATA 



brothers were brought one by ono to 
tin; proconsul, who inflicted horrible 
tortures on each, and finally had them 
crncified. Domnina was next led forth, 
and being threatened with torture by fire, 
-lit sail I she was more afraid of eternal 
lire, which she would incur if she obeyed 
the governor by sacrificing to his gods. 
She was then stripped, and beaten until 
sh: died. The executioner said, "May 
it please you, Domnina is dead." To 
which Lysias answered, " Throw her 
into the river." The jailor at once 
brought another prisoner, saying, " Here 
is Theonilla." R.M. Martyrnm Art,/. 
Butler, L ,r,s ,,/ // F,,tlt,-i-8 t from the 
authentic Proconsular Acts given by 
Kuinart, Surius, Haronius, etc. 

St. Domnina (:*), or DONVINA, of 
Antioch, Oct. 4 and 14. 305 or :mj. 
Martyred with her two daughters, 
r&gt;i:i;ivv\,or Bi:KKNicE(2), and PKOSDOCK 
I hey fled from their homo in Syria. 
They were going to Edessa, but were 
overtaken by Domnina s husband with 
soldiers, and recaptured and taken to or 
towards Hierapolis. On the way, a river 
was found to bo swollen and overflowing 
its bunks. When the soldiers were cat- 
ing and drinking, the three women 
quietly walked into the river, and were 
drowned. They are mentioned in a 
homily of St. Chrysostom, who holds 
them up to veneration. As the Chris 
tians did not encourage suicide, it is 
supposed they were driven to it, as the 
only way of saving themselves from the 
brutality of the soldiers. Compare ST. 
l i.i.\ .i\ ..;,. R.M., Oct. 14. C. Byeus, 
in .l.l.N.s . 

St. Domnina (4), Oct. 12, M. Of 
Aim/arba, in Cilicia (or in Lycia, accord 
ing to the H.M. , In the time of Diocle 
tian. Many times tortured and imprisoned 
to shako her constancy. One of her tor- 
tun-s was that her feet were burnt. At 
la-l -he died of her wounds while praying 
b prison, .17- nuln.j,, ,,f /;, W 7. AA.SS. 

St. Domnina &lt; &gt; , July lo, M. at 
Antioch. AAJ38. 

SS. Domnina (0) and Maura &lt; i &gt;. 

Codinus says that, in the time ,.f Theo- 

dosius tli. . si. Domnina 

B from Koine to Constantinople with 

another person, appan ntly named Maiir.i. 



I hey found a place in the new city, not 
yet built upon, and asked the emperor ti 
give it to them. Ho did so, and with 
his help, they built two monasteries, ono 
called the monastery of St. Domnina, or 
of Alexander, and the other the monas 
tery of Maura. Tillemont, Emixreurs, 
vi. 404. 

St. Domnina (7), Jan-. 8. The 
mother of St. George the Chozobito, i.e. 
a monk of Choseba, a laura near Jeru 
salem. She was living in Palestine, 
and fled with her son to Byzantium, to 
escape an inroad of the Saracens. She 
was already old when she came to Byzan 
tium, and lived there many years in great 
holiness. Neale, Holy Eastern Church. 
Byzantine Calendar, Jan. 8. She is 
perhaps the same as ST. DOMINICA (2), 
of ( 1 arthage. AA.SS. 

St. Domnina ( s), or DOMNA, March 1 . 
f- about 4r&gt;n, a V. of Syria. Moved by 
the example or teaching of St. Maro to 
lead a religious life, she built herself a 
hut in her mother s garden, where she 
spent much time in prayer and tears, 
going to church every day at cock-crow, 
but never looking anybody in the face ; 
she fasted till she was wasted to a skele 
ton. Many women joined her prayers, 
and followed hor pious example. .LI .NX., 
from Theodoret. 

St. Donata. Twenty-eight saints of 
this name are mentioned in the calendars 
and martyrologies. Of those, ten, or 
eleven, or thirteen suffered martyrdom 
at Koine, and two or three in other parts 
of Italy; nine in Africa; ono at Nico- 
media ; ono in Syria ; ono at Byzantium ; 
one in Thrace, and one in Bulgaria; and 
others whose place of martyrdom is un 
certain. 

Of those put to death for the Christian 
faith at Koine 

Five SS. DONATA are among 227 
martyrs, June 2, in a^list in the ttttffyro- 
//// // St. Jerome. 

Two commemorated June :. 

&lt; Mn: \\ith many other saints, Feb. 17. 

One in the cemetery of PriKcilla, on 
-alaria, Dec. Ill, with live other 
women, SS. r\rus\, BtTBTlCA, NOMI- 
N\M&lt;\, SI:I;I.TIN\, Jln.AUA, and 1 
eoinpanioni. These are in the 
/) "/&lt;"jy. 



242 



ST. DONATA 



( hie in the Via Nomcntana,*April 20. 

One pnt to death with St. Cyriacus 
and others, at Rome, Aug. 8. (See 
MEMMIA.) 

In some old Martyrologios, DONATA, 
Feb. 4 and July ."&gt;&lt;&gt;, is mentioned as one 
of several who were put to death either 
at Rome or Fossombrone, in Urbino. 

One was. martyred at Capua, April 1 2. 

One with other martyrs in Italy, 
Feb. 12, mentioned in the Martyrology 
of St. Jerome. 

One with ST. AUCEGA, either at Rome 
or at Thessalonica, June 1 . 

Of the DONATAS in Africa, one, July 
17, is in the Roman Martyrology as one 
of the Scillitan martyrs at Carthage. 
(See JANUARIA (1).) 

Four are in a long list of MM. in 
Africa, May 7. 

One with GAIOLA and many others, 
March 3. 

Two in Africa, June 7 and 8 severally. 

Another DONATA, M. in Africa, Sept. 28, 
is also called DONATULA, or DONATELLA. 

One in Mauritania, probably 304, 
Oct. 17. 

ST. DONATA, or DOMNA, March 12, V. 
M., was a companion of the tortures 
and death of St. Peter, chamberlain of 
the Emperor Diocletian, who suffered 
with several other Christians at Nico- 
media in 304. 

ST. DONATA, or DONATUS, was a martyr 
in Syria, Oct. 12. 

ST. DONATA, M. in Thrace, Sept. 29. 

ST. DONATA, M. at Dorostorum, in 
Bulgaria, June 18. 

ST. DONATA, M. at Byzantium, May 
8, with St. Acacius and others. (See 
AGATHA (2).) 

Another DONATA is commemorated, 
Sept. 10, with SECUNDA and others; but 
these are supposed to be the same as 
some of those elsewhere described or 
commemorated on other days. AA.SS. 

St. Donatella (1), April 15, M. in 
Gallatia, or Galgscia. AA.SS. 

St. Donatella (2), DONATULA, or 
DONATA, Sept. 28. AA..SS. 

SS. Donatella 0\) and Secunda, 
June 12, MM. at Rome. They are com 
memorated with St. Basilides, but not 
mentioned in his Acts. He was a 
Roman soldier, martyred with four of 



his comrades about the year ,300 : Baillct 
says we know nothing authentic about 
them, as a sermon by St. Ambrose, 
sometimes erroneously quoted concerning 
St. Nazarius, one of the five, refers not 
to him, but to St. Nazarius of Milan 
(July 2S&gt; 

SS. Donatilla, July 30, Y.M., Maxi 
ma and Secunda, W. MM. under Gal- 
lienus, at Turburbum Lucernarium, in 
Africa. The two first were compelled 
to drink vinegar and gall, racked on the 
equuleus, broiled on a gridiron, and 
rubbed with hot lime ; then, with ST. 
SECUNDA, who was twelve years old, 
thrown to wild beasts, which would not 
hurt them. Finally they were beheaded. 
Their friend and companion, ST. CRIS- 
PINA, was beheaded at Thebestc, under 
Diocletian, 304. E.M. AA.SS. Callot. 
Husenbcth. There were three other 
martyrs of the same name in the early 
persecutions, Feb. 4 and March 1. 

St. Donatula. There were four 
martyrs of the name on different days. 
One of them is also called DONATELLA, 
or DONATA, M. in Africa. AA.SS. 

St. Dontula, June 2. One of 227 
Roman Martyrs commemorated together 
this day in the Martyroloyy of St. Jerome. 
AA.SS. 

St. Donvina. DOMNINA (2) and 
DOMNINA (3) are sometimes called DON 
VINA. 

St. Doria. Daughter of ST. EULALIA, 
and sister of ST. ODILIA, companions of 
ST. URSULA. Stadler. 

St. Dorlaie. French for DARLUG- 

DACIIA. 

St. Dorothy (1), Sept. :&gt;. Sister of 
ST. EUPHEAIIA (1). EM. Mart. &lt;&gt;f 
Salisbury. AA.SS. 

St. Dorothy (2), or DOROTHEA, Feb. 
G, March 28, V. M. 303. Patron of 
apples, of brewers, gardeners, lovers, 
young couples. 

Perhaps it is this great St. Dorothy 
who is patron of Poland and Silesia ; 
but it may be DOROTHY (0), 14th cen 
tury, native and patron of Prussia. 

Represented with a sword and a palm, 
wearing a wreath of roses on her head, 
and having an angel or a little boy 
beside her, carrying a basket of apples 
and roses. Husenbeth tells of many 



ST. IH)K&lt;&gt;T1IY 



248 



representations of her, six of which are 
in Kngland, with fruit and flowers in 
her hands or in her lap, or an angol 
I (ringing them to her. Two different 
stories are told of her: the first is 
supposed to bo fabulous and the second 
true, but referring to tho person known 

. CATHERINE. 

The legend of St. Dorothy of Cappa- 
&lt;L &gt;eia is as follows : She lived at ( \uoarea. 
Sapritius, or Fabricius, tho governor of 

irea, put her in prison, and offered 
great rewards to her sisters, CALI.I-I \ 
and CHUISTA, or CHUISTETA, who were, 
apostates from the Christian faith, if 
they would persuade Dorothy to apos 
tatize also, which task they undertook, 
but were converted by Dorothy, and fell 
ut her feet, entreating her to pray for 
forgiveness for them. They were con 
demned to be burned, Dorothy looking 
on and encouraging them. She was then 
sentenced to be tortured and beheaded. 
Theophilus, a young lawyer, mockingly 
u&gt;ked her to send him some of tho fruits 
and flowers from the garden of the Lord, 
where she said she was going, and sho . 
promised to do so. At tho place of 
execution she prayed, and an angel 
appeared by her side with a basket con 
taining three fragrant roses and three 
apples, which she begged him to tako to 
Theophilus. He tasted the fruit and 
smelt the roses, and straightway became 
a Christian, and afterwards a martyr. 

Her Acts, though very ancient, are 
not authentic, and her name is not in 
early Greek Calendars. Her legend was 
widely known throughout tho Western 
Church, and her worship universal there 
in the beginning of tho 8th century. 

Tho second version of the story of 
St. 1 )orothy is this: Maximianus Daia 
(ialeiins ( ;e&gt;ar, nephew of tho Emperor 
(ialerius Maximianus, was not only a 
cruel persecutor of the Christians, but a 

ial ruffian. Young girls were tho 
chief objects of his persecution, and 
their religion was in many instances 
made tho pretext for bringing them into 
his power. St. Dorothy was a beautiful 
maiden, of the noblest and wealthiest 
family of Alexandria, remarkable for her 
learning an&lt;l her knowledge of science 
and philosophy, and of the Holy Scrip 



tures, which had been publicly taught 
for a hundred years to tho young girls 
of Alexandria. 

Maximianus had already put to death 
many Christians whom ho had vainly 
tried to seduce ; but whether his admira 
tion of Dorothy was greater than his 
anger against her, or whether ho was 
afraid such a measure would be too 
unpopular, he contented himself with 
seizing all her property and banishing 
her. Eusebius relates the circumstance, 
but does not mention her name, which, 
however, is given by Kufinus. 

It is said that, on her banishment, she 
went to the mountains of Arabia, and 
was eventually martyred. Some say sho 
voluntarily left her possessions and fled 
from the pursuit of Maximiauus. Sho 
is counted among tho martyrs, although 
it is not certain what became of her 
after she left Alexandria. 

She is the same person who was 
honoured in the Eastern Church as 
CATHERINE centuries before Catherine 
became a popular saint in the West, and 
as the names and legends differed so 
widely, they came to bo regarded as two 
different persons, an example of one way 
of multiplying saints. EM. Le Beau, 
Ban Empire, i. 7. 5. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred 
and Leyendary Art. Baillet. Villegas. 
Le&lt;/yendario. Mart, oftialiabury. Husen- 
beth. Ott. Cahier. 

St. Dorothy (. J), or DOROTHEAS, and 
Januaria, or JANUAKIANA, Oct. 2o, MM. 
at Tuteoli, probably at tho beginning of 
the -Hh century. 

St. Dorothy (4), May 11, M. at 
Home with St. Cyrillus and others. 
Their relics were taken to tho monastery 
of St. Lambert, in Styria, by order of 
Innocent X. AA.SS. Stadler. 

St. Dorothy (5J, Jan. 15. An Irish 
woman of high rank, or, as tho Martyro- 
/". /// ofSaUtfmry has it, "Of greto blode, 
and whan sho sholdo hauo ben maryed 
vnto a gontylo, she fleddo onto a monas 
tery of virgyns," whore sho was chosen 
abbess. Such was her contempt for 
earthly riches that, when sho had touched 
money, sho always said she must wash 
her hands " for touching of that fylthy 
inncke." (Mart, of Salisbury.) Sho is 
me as ITA 1. 



21 1 



B. DOROTHY 



B. Dorothy (6), Juno 2?&gt;, Oct. 30. 
14th century. Born about 133 &gt;. 
4- 13W). 

Patron saint of Prussia, and perhaps 
of Poland and Silesia. Compare 
DOROTHY (2). 

Represented in an old woodcut in 
Lilicnthal s Life of her in a long cloak, 
holding in one hand a rosary, in the 
other a lantern, one arrow sticking in 
her heart and one in each arm. Some 
times represented with three burning 
darts in her heart and four spears in her 
right side ; sometimes in the same picture 
with ST. JUTTA (5), of Sangherhausen in 
Saxony. 

She was born at Montau, on the island 
of Marienburg, at the mouth of the 
Vistula, in Pomerania, about 1 336. Her 
father was Wilhelm Swartz, a Dutchman. 
Her mother s name was Agatha. Dorothy 
was the seventh of nine children, and 
the youngest of five daughters. She 
was pious from her earliest childhood, 
and this tendency decidedly increased 
after she was scalded with boiling water 
at the age of seven. She was a hard 
working, useful girl, and when her elder 
sisters were married, she took care of 
the house, though scarcely ten years old. 
At seventeen she married Adalbert, an 
honest man of Dantzig, pious and well- 
to-do. They spent the first fourteen 
days of their married life in a strictly 
ascetic manner. They had seven sons, 
all of whom died in infancy, and lastly, 
they had one daughter. They had now 
been married twenty-six years, and 
Dorothy was forty-four years of age, so 
she resolved to have no more children, 
and took a vow of celibacy. 

Her daughter, who is variously called 
Elizabeth, Gertrude, and Agatha, be 
came a Benedictine nun at Culm, and 
afterwards took the Cistercian habit at 
Oliva. 

In 1382, when her daughter must 
have been nearly two years old, Dorothy 
and her husband made a pilgrimage to 
Aix-la-Chapelle, thence they went to 
visit a hermit in Vinsterwaldt, and re 
turned homo in winter. The next year 
they went again. Between their first 
and second pilgrimages to Aix the Lord 
took out her bodily heart and put in a 



new one. She suffered mental aliena 
tions, in which she sat stupid, so that 
many thought she was insane. Their 
second journey was difficult, as there was 
war in the country they passed through. 
They went to Hamburg and Lauenburg, 
and were nearly drowned in the Elbe 
among the ice. Then they came home 
by sea to Dantzig. 

In October, 1 889, Dorothy went with 
out her husband to Home for the Jubilee 
of 13JM). She stayed there until after 
Easter, 1 3io, and came home by Cologne. 
Meantime her husband died. 

In May, 13H4, she obtained leave to 
build a cell in the church of Marieninsel, 
and there she was built up, her mother 
weeping, and all the people applauding. 

Here she lived for six or sixteen years, 
during which she wrought miracles and 
had visions, and converted sinners. ///&gt;/. 
Beatse Dorothea by T. Christ. Lilienthal, 
M.A., Dantzig, 1744. 

Many miracles were wrought at her 
tomb after her death, and her fame soon 
spread over Poland, Silesia, Bohemia, 
Livonia, and Lithuania. She was said 
to have had the stigmata, but she never 
showed them or mentioned them, so that 
there is no contemporary authority for the 
assertion. She is said by do Buck, 
AA.SS.J Supplement, Oct. 30, to have 
been a recluse at Kwidzyn, in Borussia 
Polonica. He says the first life of 
Dorothy is supposed to be written by 
John Marienwerder, her confessor. 

St. Dorothy (7), V. at Aries, in 
France, where her tomb is venerated in 
the famous crypt of St. Honorat. Migne. 

B. Dorothy (8) Lissonia, Oct. 30 
or Sept. J 1, V. O.S.F., at Milan. Sup 
posed 1447. Stadler. 

B. Dorothy (0), March 23. loth 
century. At Unterwald, in Switzerland. 
Wife of the B. Nicolas de llupe. They 
had ten children, and then he became a 
monk and she a nun. Stadler. 

B. Dorothy (10), or DOKOTBA, of 
Ferrara. Dec. 10. -f 1507. O.S.D. 
Wife of Luca Perinati, led a holy life 
in the world, and after her husband s 
death became a nun in the Dominican 
convent of St. Catherine of Siena, at 
Ferrara, called " Le Sanesi." When she 
had become a nun her piety increased, 



ST. i)\vv\\vi:\ 



245 



and was blessed with visions. She saw 
Christ several times with her bodily 
eyes. She is mentioned by the three 
historians of the Order of Preachers, 
Manoel do Lima, Ayioloyio Dtnni,&gt; 
liazzi, Predicatori\ and Pio, /&lt; /// 
Dmine Uluxtri per Santita. 

St. Dota, Feb. 22, M. with ST. ANTIGA. 

St. Douceline, DULCELINA. 

St. Drosis, DKOZKLA, or DUUSILLA, 
Sept. 22, V. M. Burnt at Antioch, in 
Syria, with five others. She was young 
and weak and delicate. Sometimes said 
to have been daughter of the Kmpcror 
Trajan, anil this belief prevails among 
tho Itussians and Wallachians, but does 
not rest on any good authority. She is 
commemorated in tho Greek Meuoas, 
where her companions are called canon- 
esses, i.e. nuns, or deaconesses. By one 
account SS. CALLINICA and BASILISSA 
were among her five co-martyrs. By 
another they lived in the following cen 
tury. Stilting in AA.SS. Grseco-Slav. 
dt I ndar. 

St. Drozela, March 22. AA.88. 
Probably Ditosis. 

St. Drusa, Feb. :&gt;, DOMINICA (4) of 
&lt; Iliistonbury. 

St. Drusilla, DROSIS. 

B. Duglioli, Sept. 2. 5. Mas Latrio. 
lfi:i.K\ ( ID) DUGLIOLI. 

St. Dula (1), March 25, V. M. at 
Nicomodia. ^Represented dead, watched 
by a dog. Servant to a certain soldier. 
She was slain in defence of her chastity, 
and thus obtained the crown of martyr 
dom. 11. M. Cahier, Caracteristiqws. 

SS. Dula (2) and Cyria (:i ), April 5. 
(S,-.n- ,-Slni\ Calendar. Possibly sa